R. P. Ridley
Service no. 589
Rifleman, London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles), 16th Battalion
Killed in action on 23 September 1916, aged 23
Born in Clapham; enlisted at Westminster; lived in Clapham
CWGC: “Son of Frederick William Ridley, of 420 Clapham Road, Clapham, London.”
Remembered at Delville Wood Cemetery, Longeuval, France, at St John’s Church, Clapham Road, London SW9
Information from the censuses
Reginald Parnham Ridley, 18 in 1911, was an electrical engineer. He was the eldest of three sons of Eliza Mary Ann Ridley, 47, a dressmaker. Ridley lived in nine rooms at 420 Clapham Road with his mother and two brothers, Roy Trevor Ridley, 16, an optician’s apprentice, and Leslie Howard Ridley, 11. The boys were born in Clapham. Ridley’s father, Frederick W. Riley, a grain merchant, does not appear on the return for this address. Eliza has listed herself as “wife” rather than “head”, so it is possible that he was away from the house that night. However, the London County Suburbs Directory for 1913 lists her as “Ridley, Mrs. Eliza, dressmaker” without mentioning her husband. A visitor, Alice Hannah Wright, 38, from Brighton, was staying on the night of the census.
