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Matthew Ridley, 1st Viscount Ridley

The Right Honourable
The Viscount Ridley
PC DL
Matthew White Ridley sketch.jpg
Home Secretary
In office
29 June 1895 – 12 November 1900
Monarch Victoria
Prime Minister The Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded by Herbert Henry Asquith
Succeeded by Charles Ritchie
Personal details
Born (1842-07-25)25 July 1842
London, England
Died 28 November 1904(1904-11-28) (aged 62)
Blagdon Hall, Northumberland
Nationality British
Political party Conservative
Spouse(s) Hon. Mary Georgiana Marjoribanks
(1850–1899)
Alma mater Balliol College, Oxford

Matthew White Ridley, 1st Viscount Ridley PC DL (25 July 1842 – 28 November 1904), known as Sir Matthew White Ridley, 5th Baronet from 1877 to 1900, was a British Conservative statesman. He notably served as Home Secretary from 1895 to 1900.

Ridley was born in London, the eldest son of Sir Matthew White Ridley, 4th Baronet and his wife the Hon. Cecilia Anne, daughter of James Parke, 1st Baron Wensleydale and his wife Cecilia Arabella Frances Barlow. He was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1865, he was a Fellow of All Souls for nine years.

In 1868, he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Northumberland North, and held this seat for seventeen years before being returned as member for the Blackpool Division of North Lancashire in 1886. Having been Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department for two years in Disraeli's administration, Sir Matthew Ridley (as he became when he succeeded his father as fifth baronet in 1877) was Financial Secretary to the Treasury in Lord Salisbury's interim government of 1885 to 1886. In 1895, after the fall of Lord Rosebery's ministry, and having already failed in April of that year to be elected Speaker of the House of Commons, Ridley became Home Secretary, and held this post until his retirement in 1900. He was that same year created Viscount Ridley and Baron Wensleydale, of Blagdon and Blyth in the County of Northumberland.


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