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 The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

clergyman, Rector of Orcheston St Mary, Wiltshire, and his wife Jane Elizabeth Rutherford. He was educated at

Clifton College Clifton College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in the city of Bristol in South West England, founded in 1862 and offering both boarding school, boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18. In its early years, unlike mo ...

, 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 Coatham is an area of Redcar, in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. History There is reputed to be an entry in Domesday Book – the first recorded reference to Coatham as "there is a ...

, Yorkshire, died in 1898, leaving a substantial fortune. His father died in 1899 in

Bordighera Bordighera (; , locally ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Imperia, Liguria (Italy). Geography Bordighera is located from the land border between Italy and France, the French coast is visible from the town. Having the Capo Sant'Ampel ...

Career

From 1920 to 1945, Ridley was a Fellow and Tutor of Balliol. He spent 1930–1931 as a visiting professor at

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. It was chartered in 1794. The main Bowdoin campus is located near Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River. In a ...

under the auspices of the Tallman Foundation. He was a lecturer at Bedford College,

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, from 1948, where he earned a Doctorate of Humane Letters. On 23 September 1922, he married Katherine Scott in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

In popular culture

Dorothy L. Sayers Dorothy Leigh Sayers ( ; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime novelist, playwright, translator and critic. Born in Oxford, Sayers was brought up in rural East Anglia and educated at Godolphin School in Salisbury and Somerv ...

based the physical description of her character

Lord Peter Wimsey Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey (later 17th Duke of Denver) is the fictional protagonist in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers (and their continuation by Jill Paton Walsh). A amateur, dilettante who solves myst ...

(the archetypal British gentleman detective) on that of Ridley after seeing him read his

Newdigate Prize Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize, more commonly the Newdigate Prize, is awarded by the University of Oxford for the Best Composition in English verse by an undergraduate student. It was founded in 1806 as a memorial to Sir Roger Newdigate (1719–1 ...

-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

, 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