Captain R. T. Claridge

Captain Richard Tappin Claridge, FSA (c. 1797/1799–1857), was a prominent asphalt contractor and captain in the Middlesex Militia, who became best known for his prominent promotion of hydropathy, now known as hydrotherapy, in the 1840s. It was also known as the Cold Water system or Cold Water cure. Claridge is widely credited with introducing the methods of Vincent Priessnitz to England, thus initiating the populist movement of the time. Indeed, much of what is popularly known about Priessnitz in the English-speaking world comes from two seminal publications. Firstly, Claridge's Hydropathy; or The Cold Water Cure, as practiced by Vincent Priessnitz... (1842 & 1843). Secondly, Richard Metcalfe's Life of Vincent Priessnitz (1898), with Metcalfe himself drawing upon Claridge, although Metcalfe also later wrote a historical overview and added more about Claridge and his role in the promotion of hydropathy.

Richard Tappin Claridge was born in Farnborough, a village or parish in the county of Warwickshire, and administered by the Stratford-on-Avon District Council. Claridge, a member of the Arcadian Academy at Rome, was the elder and only surviving son of James and Hannah Claridge, and a descendent of church minister and subsequent Quaker, Richard Claridge. Rev. James Claridge was himself a curate in the Established, or Episcopal Church. The Rev. James Claridge died by accident, leaving Richard an orphan at age eight.

Claridge married twice. On 28 June 1822, at St George's, Hanover Square, he married Elizabeth Ann Aldsworth Green, who was the only child of the late William Green, of Bolton Street, Piccadilly, and of Kew, Surrey. In April 1824 they had a daughter named Emma Green, who later married Marie Etienne Charles Henri, Marquis de St. Aignan, and subsequently resided in Nice. Claridge was a man of independent means, who in 1841 attended Priessnitz's establishment at Graefenberg along with his wife and daughter. He claimed that his promotion of hydropathy was "completely philanthropic. Having gained my own health and saved the life of my daughter at Graefenberg, and having witnessed most astounding cures there", he wanted to promote this system. Elizabeth died on 24 August 1842. Claridge spent some time in Italy, from where around 1847 he continued promoting hydropathy by petition and a letter written at Bagni de Lucco on 12 May 1847. On 7 January 1854, Claridge, now residing at a villa on the left bank of Paillon in Nice, married his second wife, Eliza Ann Morgan (née Beville) at Trinity Church, Marylebone. Eliza had herself been previously married to the late George Gould Morgan, of the Tredegar peerage. Eliza Morgan Claridge died sometime before 1866.

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