Edward Ridley

Sir Edward Ridley, PC (20 August 1843 – 14 October 1928) was an English barrister, Conservative politician, and judge. Well regarded as an Official Referee, his selection by Lord Chancellor Halsbury for the High Court bench provoked much controversy, as was his subsequent time on the bench.

The Right Honourable
Sir Edward Ridley
Justice of the High Court
In office
21 April 1897 – 6 October 1917

According to a modern assessment, although Ridley was "one of Halsbury's worst appointments", "it was not unreasonable to widen the field of choice [of judicial appointments] by taking Edward Ridley from among the Official Referees", even though he "turned out far worse than anyone might have expected".

Background and political career

He was born in Stannington, Northumberland,[1] the younger son of Sir Matthew White Ridley, 4th Baronet, and his wife, Hon. Cecilia Ann, eldest daughter of Sir James Parke, afterwards Baron Wensleydale. His eldest brother Matthew succeeded as fifth baronet and was created a viscount in 1900 after serving as Home Secretary.[2][3]

Ridley was educated at Harrow and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 1866–1882.[3]

He was MP for South Northumberland from 1878 to 1880.[4][2]

Ridley was called to the bar in 1868 and took silk in 1892.[2] From 1886 to 1897, he was an Official Referee. In 1897, Ridley was appointed a Justice of the High Court and assigned to the Queen's Bench Division, receiving the customary knighthood.

Ridley had been nominated by Lord Halsbury, who had a reputation for appointing unqualified lawyers to the bench on party political grounds. Ridley's appointment "aroused an exceptional storm of public and private criticism" and "was greeted with horror".[5] The Law Journal said that "[t]he appointment can be defended on no ground whatsoever. It would be easy to name fifty members of the Bar with a better claim." The Solicitors' Journal described it as "a grave mistake"[6][7] The Law Times wrote that:

Unquestionable as are the virtues of Mr. Edward Ridley, Q.C.—for some years the favourite Official referee—no-one will believe that he would have been appointed to the High Court Bench but for his connections... Such an innovation, we repeat, was only possible where the hard-working official, the bearer of so many heavy burdens of the High Court judges, was highly connected. This is Ridleyism. Let it be known hereafter as Ridleyism. It is a curiosity."[6][7]

He resigned from the bench in 1917 and was sworn of the Privy Council.

Assessments

On Ridley's death, Sir Frederick Pollock had written: "Sir E. Ridley, good scholar, Fellow of All Souls, successful, sicut dicunt [so they say], as an Official Referee, and by general opinion of the Bar the worst High Court judge of our time, ill-tempered and grossly unfair: which is rather a mystery".[6][7][8]

Lord Justice MacKinnon called Ridley "the worst judge I have appeared before", saying that "he had a perverse instinct for unfairness".[6][9]

Personal life

Ridley married Alice Davenport, daughter of William Bromley-Davenport of Cheshire. They had two sons, Edward Davenport Ridley MC (1883–1934) and Cecil Guy Ridley CBE (1885–1947).

References
  1. 1861 England Census
  2. "Obituary: Sir Edward Ridley – Judge And Scholar". The Times. 15 October 1928. p. 21.
  3. Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
  4. "Ridley, Rt Hon. Sir Edward, (1843–14 Oct. 1928), PC 1917; Judge of the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, 1897–1917". Who's Who. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  5. Stevens, Robert (18 October 2002). The English Judges: Their Role in the Changing Constitution. Hart Publishing. p. 15. ISBN 978-1841132266.
  6. Toulson, Roger (3 December 2009). "Judging judicial appointments" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  7. Heuston, R. F. V. (1964). Lives of the Lord Chancellors (1885 – 1940). Clarendon Press. p. 51. ASIN B0000CM3YN.
  8. DeWolfe, Mark, ed. (1941). Holmes-Pollock Letters: The Correspondence of Mr. Justice Holmes and Sir Edward Pollock 1874-1932. Vol. II. Harvard University Press. p. 232. ASIN B00460Z6Z4.
  9. MacKinnon, "The Origin of the Commercial Court," (1944) LQR (60), 324–325.
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