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 and allegations of nepotism, as did his subsequent time on the bench.

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, the younger son of Sir Matthew White Ridley, 4th Baronet, and his wife, the Honourable Cecilia Ann Ridley, née Parke, eldest daughter of Sir James Parke, afterwards Baron Wensleydale. His eldest brother Matthew succeeded to the baronetcy and was created a viscount in 1900 after serving as Home Secretary.

Ridley was educated at Harrow and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 1866–1882. The Law Journal said that "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" He resigned from the bench in 1917 and was sworn of the Privy Council.

Classical scholarship Ridley established his reputation as a classical scholar with a blank verse translation of Lucan's Pharsalia, first published in 1896 and republished in a revised version in 1919.

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".

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

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