Roy Ridley
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.
Early life
[edit]Ridley was the son of William Dawson Ridley, a Church of England clergyman, Rector of Orcheston St Mary, Wiltshire, and his wife Jane Elizabeth Rutherford. He was educated at Clifton College, Bristol, and Balliol College, Oxford.[1][2]
His grandfather, Thomas Dawson Ridley, a civil engineer of Coatham, Yorkshire, died in 1898, leaving a substantial fortune.[3] His father died in 1899 in Bordighera.[4]
Career
[edit]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, University of London, from 1948,[1] where he earned a Doctorate of Humane Letters.
On 23 September 1922, he married Katherine Scott in Cleveland, Ohio.[5]
In popular culture
[edit]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.[6][7]
Awards
[edit]- Newdigate Prize, 1913
Works
[edit]- Keats' Craftsmanship: A Study in Poetic Development. Oxford: Clarendon. 1933.
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Leicester: Edmund Ward. 1944.
- Studies in Three Literatures. English, Latin, Greek. Contrasts and Comparisons. London: Dent. 1962. ISBN 0313201897.
- Shakespeare's Plays: A Commentary.
- Abraham Lincoln.
- On Reading Shakespeare.
References
[edit]- ^ a b Pine, L. G. (ed.), The Author's and Writer's Who's Who, 4th edn, 1960, p. 330
- ^ "Marriages", in Morning Post (London), Saturday 21 August 1886, p. 1: "The Rev. William Dawson Ridley, third son of Thomas Dawson Ridley, to Jane Elizabeth, second daughter of James Rutherford, of the Old Hall, Kirkleatham."
- ^ "RIDLEY Thomas Dawson of Coatham Redcar Yorkshire civil-engineer died 13 January 1898 Probate York 30 March to John Hindmarch Ridley Thomas William Ridley and Charles Alfred Ridley contractors Effects £40,599 1s. 3d." in Wills and Administrations (England and Wales) 1899 (1898)
- ^ "RIDLEY the reverend William Dawson of the rectory Orcheston St Mary Wiltshire clerk died 24 February at Bordighera Italy Probate London 10 May to Jane Elizabeth Ridley widow Effects £6250 8s." in Wills and Administrations (England and Wales) 1899 (1900), p. 294 (subscription required)
- ^ "M. Roy Ridley" in Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013
- ^ Moira Davison Reynolds, Women Authors of Detective Series (2017), p. 41
- ^ Eric Sandberg, Elizabeth Foxwell, Dorothy L. Sayers: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction (2022), p. 199
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