Matthew White Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley

The Right Honourable The Viscount Ridley KG GCVO TD DL
Viscount Ridley in the robes of a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter
Lord Steward
In office 1989–2001
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Preceded by	The Duke of Northumberland
Succeeded by	The Duke of Abercorn
Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland
In office 3 January 1984 – 25 August 2000
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Preceded by	The Duke of Northumberland
Succeeded by	Sir John Riddell, Bt
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 25 February 1964 – 11 November 1999 Hereditary Peerage
Preceded by	Matthew White Ridley
Personal details
Born	Matthew White Ridley (1925-07-29)29 July 1925 Blagdon Hall, Northumberland
Died	22 March 2012(2012-03-22) (aged 86) Blagdon Hall, Northumberland
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Lady Anne Lumley
Children	4, including Rose Paterson
Awards	Knight of the Garter Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch/service	British Army
Years of service	1944–1986
Rank	Brevet Colonel
Unit	Coldstream Guards, Northumberland Hussars
Battles/wars	World War II

Matthew White Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley, KG, GCVO, TD, DL (29 July 1925 – 22 March 2012), was a British nobleman. He notably served as Lord Steward of the Household from 1989 to 2001.

Background, education and military service

Ridley was the son of Matthew White Ridley, 3rd Viscount Ridley, and Ursula Lutyens, daughter of Sir Edwin Lutyens. His younger brother Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale, was a prominent Conservative Party politician who served as a government minister for nearly all of Margaret Thatcher's years as Prime Minister.

Matthew Ridley was educated at Eton College and spent several months studying agriculture at King's College, University of Durham (now Newcastle University). The Second World War interrupted his education and he joined the Coldstream Guards, serving in Normandy and Germany in 1944–45. He then studied at Oxford, graduating with a degree in Agriculture from Balliol College in 1948.

He then served as an aide-de-camp to Sir Evelyn Baring, then Governor of Kenya. During this time he furthered his interest in nature and science. In 1955, Ridley and zoologist Lord Richard Percy spent four months on an uninhabited island in the Seychelles studying the plight of the dwindling sooty tern.

Later he joined the Territorial Army, reaching the rank of Brevet Colonel in the Northumberland Hussars: he became Honorary Colonel of that unit in 1979.

Public life

Ridley succeeded his father in the viscountcy in 1964. He was Chairman of Northumberland County Council from 1967 to 1979. He chaired several companies and societies, before serving as Chancellor of the University of Newcastle from 1988 to 1999, as Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland from 1984 to 2000, and as Lord Steward of the Household from 1989 to 2001. He was succeeded by the Duke of Abercorn as Lord Steward in 2001.

He was made a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter in 1992 and appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 1994. He retired in 1999 and did not stand for election as a hereditary peer after the House of Lords Act.

Marriage and children

Ridley was married on 3 January 1953 to Lady Anne Katharine Gabrielle Lumley (born 16 November 1928, died 2006), daughter of Lawrence Lumley, 11th Earl of Scarbrough. They had four children together:

• Hon. Cecilia Anne Ridley (born 1 December 1953)
• Hon. Rose Emily Ridley (born 13 August 1956, died 2020), married Owen Paterson in 1980 and had two sons and a daughter
• Matthew White Ridley, 5th Viscount Ridley (born 7 February 1958)
• Hon. Mary Victoria Ridley (born 30 November 1962)

Ridley died on 22 March 2012 and was succeeded in the viscountcy by his only son.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Ridley