Stuart Oliver Ridley

He was born in 1853, the son of the Rev. Oliver Matthew Ridley and his first wife Laura Pole Stuart (died 1858), daughter of Sir William Stuart; Henry Nicholas Ridley was a younger brother.^[1] For the first years of his life his father was rector of West Harling in Norfolk, moving to Cobham, Kent in 1860. He was educated at Haileybury College.^[3]

Ridley matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford in 1872. He moved in 1873 to Exeter College, where he graduated B.A. in 1875 (1st class in Natural Sciences), M.A. in 1881.^[4][5] He also studied under Ernst Haeckel.^[3] He taught at Friars School, Bangor, and worked in 1878 at the British Museum as an assistant.^[4]

In 1887 Ridley was ordained deacon, and in 1888 priest at Carlisle. He was a curate at Maryport 1887 to 1890, then at Wareham, Dorset 1891 to 1895. He was curate at Milborne Port in Somerset 1895 to 1897, where he gave a magic lantern talk on the voyage of HMS Challenger;^[6] and was vicar of Staverton, Wiltshire from 1897 to 1905.^[5] At Milborne Port and Staverton, his parish work was supported by his sister Miss Ridley.^[7][8] He had two sisters, of his father's first marriage, one of whom was a deaconess of the Church of England.^[3] Miss Ridley, described as "sister of the well-known Singapore botanist" (i.e. Henry Nicholas Ridley), was a botanist, and resided for a time in the Peppard ward of Reading, Berkshire, where she was in 1910.^[9][10]

Ridley became vicar of Scarisbrick, where he was from 1905 to 1911, succeeding his brother Charles William Ridley (1856–1905);^[11] and of Compton Bishop, near Axbridge in Somerset, where he was from 1911 to 1916.^[5][1]

Ridley in 1917 was curate of St John's Church, Reading, where he was in 1929.^[5]