Charles Noel Ridley, Captain, Northumberland Yeomanry

Charles Noel Ridley came up to Cambridge in 1904 after having spent some time sheep farming in New Zealand.

Born: Wellborn, Northumberland on 24 December 1884

Died of wounds: 7 October 1915

The College’s list of members records that he went down after having spent two years here.

The obituary for him in the Jesus College Cambridge Annual Report, 1916 records that “he lived an open-air life, his multitude of rare dogs being quite a feature of the place” (p27).

Upon leaving he was commissioned into the army in 1906 and had retired as a Lieutenant in 1914. He re-joined the army at the outbreak of war and was part of the 7th division that landed in France in October 1914 to join the defence of Ypres. He became a captain in January 1915, was wounded on 30th September 1915 and died a week later.

He was survived by his widow Daphne Bewicke and their three daughters.

You can email us on ww1-project@jesus.cam.ac.uk, go to our First World War homepage, or find us on Lives of the First World War.