Lady Ursula Ridley

Last updated

Ursula Ridley, Viscountess Ridley, nee Lutyens (31 October 1904 - 28 December 1967) OBE, JP was a magistrate, social campaigner, charity worker and aristocrat.

Contents

Early life

Ursula was born at 26 Bloomsbury Square on 31 October 1904. [1] Ursula’s father was the architect Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens and her mother was Lady Emily Bulwer-Lytton. She had four siblings:

She was cared for in childhood by Alice Louisa Sleath, the Lutyens's family nanny. [6]

Marriage and children

Ursula Lutyens married Matthew White Ridley, 3rd Viscount Ridley on 13 Oct 1924 at St Margaret's, Westminster. [7] According to a newspaper report, she chose to get married on the 13th as it was her lucky number. Her wedding reception was at 13 Mansfield Street (also her residence as recorded on the marriage certificate) and 13 children dressed in green attended the reception. [7] Ursula had three children:

Social and charity work

Newcastle Babies Hospital

The Newcastle Babies Hospital began as a daycare facility for children whose mothers worked in munitions factories during World War I. It was located in a house at 33 West Parade, on the corner of Westmorland Road, in the west end of Newcastle. It then became a place for treating sick children and teaching “mother craft” which included teaching mothers how to breast feed. [8] Sir James Calvert Spence, the eminent paediatrician, worked at the hospital and there developed his approach of social paediatrics. [8] Ursula Ridley acted as Vice-President for the hospital from 1925 and was elected Chairman in 1930. [9] [8]

In September 1939, the hospital moved from the west end of Newcastle as a precaution against bombing. The hospital transferred to a wing of Blagdon Hall, the seat of the Ridley family. Over 300 mothers stayed at Blagdon between 1939 and 1944. [8] Ursula took an active part in the hopital; assisting surgeons during operations and acting as "nurse receptionist". [9] [8]

Family Planning Association, Newcastle Branch

Ursula served as both Chair and President to the Newcastle Branch of the Family Planning Association and she opened the city's Family Planning Clinic in 1961. [9] She argued that family planning should be an integral part of the National Health Service [9] and that contraceptives should be available in pubs. [10]

Justice of the Peace

Lady Ridley was appointed as a magistrate for Northumberland in 1944. [9] In 1951 she addressed the Magistrates' Association in London, arguing that fines were an overused and ineffective punishment. [11] [12] She also used her speech to warn her fellow magistrates against lecturing those in the dock when sentencing. She doubted that it did any good and claimed that it actually provoked harmful resentment. [12]

As the first president of the North East Branch of the Association, she addressed the Bradford and West Riding Magistrates in 1953. She told the assembly that fines and maintenance money should be taken directly from wage packets to allow people to budget more effectively and therefore avoid prison. She also argued that magistrates with expertise should be recruited, rather than appointments being an reward for public service. She claimed that this was particularly important for magistrates who sat in the juvenile courts. [13]

Other positions

Honours and awards

In the 1953 Coronation Honours, Ursula Ridley was awarded the OBE for public services in Northumberland. [9]

Durham University awarded Ursula an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law in 1959 at Newcastle. [15]

Death

An inquest found that Ursula Ridley died by suicide. It was reported that she had been suffering from ill-health since the death of her husband, four years previously. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin Lutyens</span> English architect (1869–1944)

Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials and public buildings. In his biography, the writer Christopher Hussey wrote, "In his lifetime (Lutyens) was widely held to be our greatest architect since Wren if not, as many maintained, his superior". The architectural historian Gavin Stamp described him as "surely the greatest British architect of the twentieth century".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elisabeth Lutyens</span> English composer (1906–1983)

Agnes Elisabeth Lutyens, CBE was an English composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland</span> British politician (1914–1988)

Hugh Algernon Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland, styled Lord Hugh Percy between 1918 and 1940, was a British landowner, soldier and peer. He was the son of Alan Percy, 8th Duke of Northumberland, and Lady Helen Gordon-Lennox. He succeeded to the dukedom of Northumberland in 1940 when his brother, the 9th Duke, was killed in action in World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew White Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley</span> British nobleman

Matthew White Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley was a British nobleman. He was Lord Steward of the Household from 1989 to 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lindisfarne Castle</span> 16th-century castle on Holy Island, England

Lindisfarne Castle is a 16th-century castle located on Holy Island, near Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, England, much altered by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1901. The island is accessible from the mainland at low tide by means of a causeway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Lutyens</span> British writer

Edith Penelope Mary Lutyens was a British author who is principally known for her biographical works on the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hilda Runciman, Viscountess Runciman of Doxford</span> British Liberal Party politician (1869–1956)

Hilda Runciman, Viscountess Runciman of Doxford was a British Liberal Party politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir Matthew White Ridley, 2nd Baronet</span> British politician (1745–1813)

Sir Matthew White Ridley, 2nd Baronet, was a Northumbrian landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1768 and 1812.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew White Ridley, 2nd Viscount Ridley</span> British politician

Matthew White Ridley, 2nd Viscount Ridley, was a British peer and Conservative politician. His political career was most noted for his support of Tariff Reform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blagdon Hall</span>

Blagdon Hall is a privately owned English country house near Cramlington in Northumberland. It is a Grade I listed building. The house and estate have been in the ownership of the White Ridley family since 1698. The present Viscount Ridley is the science writer and hereditary peer Matt Ridley.

Matthew White Ridley, 3rd Viscount Ridley was a British peer, landowner, public servant and race car driver. He was also the third Baron Wensleydale and seventh Baronet Ridley.

The Honourable Jane Ridley FRSL is an English historian, biographer, author and broadcaster, and Professor of Modern History at the University of Buckingham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homewood, Knebworth</span>

Homewood is an Arts and Crafts style country house in Knebworth, Hertfordshire, England. Designed and built by architect Edwin Lutyens around 1900–3, using a mixture of vernacular and Neo-Georgian architecture, it is a Grade II* listed building. The house was one of Lutyens' first experiments in the addition of classical features to his previously vernacular style, and the introduction of symmetry into his plans. The gardens, also designed by Lutyens, are Grade II listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Emma Louisa (Radford), Lady Radford, FSA, FRHistS, JP was an English antiquarian and public servant. A noted local historian and a contributor to the Dictionary of National Biography, she was the first woman to be elected President of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and the Arts, and was also among the first women to be appointed a magistrate for the Exeter Bench.

Margaret Montgomery Pirrie, Viscountess Pirrie was an Irish public figure and philanthropist, the first woman Justice of the Peace in Belfast, and the first woman to receive the freedom of the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lady Emily Lutyens</span> English theosophist and writer (1874–1964)

Lady Emily Lutyens was an English theosophist and writer.

Rose Emily Paterson was a British business executive, fundraiser, and the chairman of Aintree Racecourse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Trevelyan (Lady)</span> British political hostess and voluntary worker

Mary "Molly" Katherine, Lady Trevelyan, was an English political hostess and voluntary worker. She was an active member of several organisations and she was on the founding committee of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Balfour, Countess of Balfour</span> British suffragette and politician

Elizabeth Edith Balfour, Countess of Balfour was a British suffragette, politician, and writer. A staunch Conservative, she served as Dame President of the Woking Habitation of the Primrose League and was a founding member of the Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association, serving as president of the association's chapter in Edinburgh. After the 1910 Conciliation Bill failed to pass in the House of Commons, she went on a speaking tour across the United Kingdom to rally support for women's suffrage. In 1919, Lady Balfour became the first woman to sit on the Woking Borough Council.

Norah Elizabeth Balls was a British suffragette, women's rights campaigner, magistrate and councillor. She was a co-founder of the Girl Guides movement in Northumberland.

References

  1. ↑ "Births". London Evening Standard. 2 November 1904. p. 1.
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ "Robert Lutyens". Dictionary of Scottish Architects. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
  4. ↑ "Clark, (Thomas) Edward". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/40709.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ↑ "(Edith Penelope) Mary Lutyens (1909–1999)". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
  6. ↑ "Lady Ursula Lutyens Ridley (1904-1967) – Northumberland Archives". 2024-09-03. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
  7. 1 2 ""13" Wedding". Daily Mirror. 14 October 1924. p. 2.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 "Newcastle Babies Hospital at Blagdon Hall, Stannington, Northumberland, 1939-1944 – Northumberland Archives". 2023-08-31. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "The North Loses a Hostess of Great Charm". Newcastle Evening Chronicle. 28 December 1967. p. 5.
  10. ↑ "'Birth Control at Pubs' Plea". Daily Mirror. 15 March 1967. p. 20.
  11. ↑ "And Fines Can't Change a Man's Character Says the Viscountess". Daily Mirror. 20 October 1951. p. 7.
  12. 1 2 "Far Too Many People Being Fined, Says JP". Daily Express. 20 October 1951. p. 5.
  13. ↑ "Lady Ridley Wants PAYE Fines". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. 16 April 1953. p. 5.
  14. ↑ "Appointment of JPs". Morpeth Herald. 14 January 1944. p. 4.
  15. ↑ "University Honour Lady Ridley". Newcastle Journal. 7 April 1959. p. 5.
  16. ↑ "Peer's Widow Took Own Life Verdict". Liverpool Echo. 30 December 1967. p. 3.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.