Maurice Roy Ridley (25 January 1890 – 12 June 1969), known professionally as M. R. Ridley, was a writer and poet, and Fellow and Chaplain of

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

Early life

Ridley was the son of William Dawson Ridley, a Church of England clergyman, Rector of Orcheston, Orcheston St Mary, Wiltshire, and his wife Jane Elizabeth Rutherford. He was educated at Clifton College, Bristol, and

.Pine, L. G. (ed.), ''The Author's and Writer's Who's Who'', 4th edn, 1960, p. 330 His grandfather, Thomas Dawson Ridley, a civil engineer of Coatham, Yorkshire, died in 1898, leaving a substantial fortune. His father died in 1899 in Bordighera.

Career

From 1920 to 1945, Ridley was a Fellow and Tutor of Balliol. He spent 1930–1931 as a visiting professor at Bowdoin College under the auspices of the Tallman Foundation. He was a lecturer at Bedford College (London), Bedford College, University of London, from 1948, where he earned a Doctorate of Humane Letters. On 23 September 1922, he married Katherine Scott in Cleveland, Ohio.

In popular culture

Dorothy L. Sayers based the physical description of her character Lord Peter Wimsey (the archetypal British gentleman detective) on that of Ridley after seeing him read his Newdigate Prize-winning poem "Oxford" at the Encaenia ceremony in July 1913.Eric Sandberg, Elizabeth Foxwell, ''Dorothy L. Sayers: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction'' (2022), p. 199

Awards

* Newdigate Prize, 1913

Works

* * * * * *

References

1890 births 1969 deaths Bowdoin College faculty Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford 20th-century Church of England clergy Academics of Bedford College, London Bowdoin College people People educated at Clifton College {{UK-writer-stub