Sue Ryder
Margaret Susan Cheshire, Baroness Ryder of Warsaw and Baroness Cheshire, CMG, OBE (3 July 1923 – 2 November 2000), best-known as Sue Ryder, was a British peeress who worked with Special Operations Executive in the Second World War and afterwards led many charitable organizations, notably the Sue Ryder charity named after her.
She was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, and educated at Benenden School. When World War II broke out, she volunteered to the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, even though she was only 16. Soon she was assigned to the Polish section of the Special Operations Executive. Ryder's job was to drive SOE agents to the airfield where they would take off on their assignments in Europe. In 1943 she was posted to Tunisia and later to Italy.
After the war was over, Ryder volunteered to do relief work in Poland and expended to other charitable work as well. She was appointed OBE in 1957 and CMG in 1976.
In 1959 Ryder married Group Captain Leonard Cheshire (later Baron Cheshire). They received a Variety Club's Humanitarian Award in 1975. Ryder was raised to the Peerage in 1979 and was created Baroness Ryder of Warsaw, of Warsaw in Poland and of Cavendish in the County of Suffolk. In the House of Lords, Lady Ryder of Warsaw was involved in debates about defense, drug abuse, housing, medical services, unemployment and race relations. The Queen Mother opened the Sue Ryder Foundation (later Sue Ryder Care) at Cavendish, Suffolk in 1979.
Ryder also continued to speak for Poland and when the communist rule there collapsed, she arranged lorries of medical and food aid. In 1989 Ryder made an appeal through The Daily Telegraph to obtain more funding and collected £40.000. However, in 1998 Ryder retired as a trustee of the Sue Ryder Foundation due to disagreement with other trustees and founded Bouverie Foundations which distributed money donated to the Lady Ryder of Warsaw Appeals Fund.
Ryder wrote two books of autobiography, And the Morrow is Theirs (1975) and Child of My Love (1986).
Lady Ryder of Warsaw died in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, aged 77.
External links
- Sue Ryder of Cavendish - Richard North
- 1923 births
- 2000 deaths
- British baronesses
- English Roman Catholics
- Roman Catholic activists
- Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire
- Female life peers
- Life peers
- People from Leeds
- Women in World War II
- Special Operations Executive
- People from Suffolk
- Benenden Seniors