Background
Matthew White Ridley was born on 25 July 1842, the elder son of Sir Matthew White Ridley, fourth baronet of Blagdon, Northumberland. His mother was Cecilia Anne, eldest daughter of Sir James Parke, Baron Wensleydale.
politician statesman Home Secretary
Matthew White Ridley was born on 25 July 1842, the elder son of Sir Matthew White Ridley, fourth baronet of Blagdon, Northumberland. His mother was Cecilia Anne, eldest daughter of Sir James Parke, Baron Wensleydale.
Ridley was educated at Harrow and then at Balliol College, Oxford, and was elected a fellow of All Souls College.
Ridley embarked early on a career in politics, succeeding his father as M.P. for North Northumberland in 1868, a seat for which he was returned in 1874 and in 1880. He succeeded his father as fifth baronet in 1877. In 1878 he became undersecretary at the Home Office, and he continued in that post until 1880. He was appointed financial secretary to the Treasury in September 1885, in Lord Salisbury’s first, short administration; but after his defeat in the general election that November, he resigned together with his colleagues in January 1886.
He had lost the Hexham constituency in the November 1885 election, having been forced to stand for reelection due to the redistribution of the parliamentary seats in 1885. In the July 1886 general election he was defeated again at Newcastle-on-Tyne. He was not reelected to Parliament until he won the Blackpool parliamentary by-election in August 1886. He retained this seat until he was raised to the peerage in 1900. Although he was admitted to the Privy Council in 1892, he remained a member of Parliament. His primary claim to political fame is his term as home secretary (1895-1900) in Lord Salisbury’s government; but his record in this office is unremarkable. He retired from political life in 1900, becoming Viscount Ridley and contenting himself with running his estates and with a stint as chairman of the North Eastern Railway. He died on 28 November 1904.
He was married to Mary Georgiana, eldest daughter of Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, first Lord Tweedmouth, on 10 December 1873.