Jasper Nicholas Ridley

Sir Jasper Nicholas Ridley KCVO OBE (6 January 1887 – 1 October 1951) was a British barrister, banker, and agriculturalist. He was also chairman of the Trustees of the Tate Gallery and a Trustee of the British Museum and of the National Gallery.

Early life

The second son of Matthew White Ridley, 1st Viscount Ridley, Home Secretary in Lord Salisbury's government, by his marriage to Mary Georgiana Marjoribanks, a daughter of Dudley Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth,[1] Ridley was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, proceeding to MA in 1908.[2]

Career

In early life, Ridley twice stood for parliament as a Unionist: at the January 1910 election at Morpeth, and at the December 1910 election at Newcastle. He was called to the bar in 1912. During the Great War of 1914–1918, he served with the Northumberland Hussars Yeomanry, was mentioned in despatches, appointed a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and became Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General. After the war he was Secretary of the Ministry of Labour's Training Grants Committee from 1919 to 1920.[2]

Entering the banking profession, Ridley rose to become chairman of Coutts & Co. and of the National Provincial Bank. He was also President of the London Life Association and a director of the Standard Bank of South Africa and of the Bank of British West Africa.[2]

In the 1930s, Ridley was a member of the Reorganisation Commission for Pigs and Pig Products (1932) and then of another for the Fat Stock Industry (1933–1934). In 1936 he was appointed to the Livestock Commission, and he also served on the Royal Commission on Equal Pay for Equal Work.[2]

Private life

In 1911, Ridley married Nathalie von Benckendorff, a daughter of Count Alexander Benckendorff, Russian Ambassador to the Court of St James's between 1903 and 1917, and they had four sons and one daughter. Their son Jasper was the father of the economist Adam Ridley.[1] At the time of Ridley's death his addresses were given in Who's Who as 4 Gloucester Place, Portman Square, London W1, and Mockbeggars, Claydon, Suffolk.

Outside business, Ridley was a Justice of the Peace for Suffolk, a Fellow of Eton College, chairman of the Trustees of the Tate Gallery, a Trustee of the National Gallery, and from 1947 a Trustee of the British Museum. He was a member of the Travellers, Beefsteak, and Turf clubs.[2]

Honours

Notes

  1. 1 2 Charles Mosley, ed., Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, vol. 1 (Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage, 1999), p. 30
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 'RIDLEY, Hon. Sir Jasper (Nicholas)', in Who Was Who (London: A. & C. Black); online edition by Oxford University Press, November 2012, accessed 23 March 2014
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