George Riddell, 1st Baron Riddell

George Allardice Riddell, 1st Baron Riddell (25 May 1865 – 5 December 1934), known as Sir George Riddell, Bt, between 1918 and 1920, was a British solicitor, newspaper proprietor and public servant.

Background and education

Riddell was born in Brixton Heath, London, the son of James Riddell, a photographer, and Isabel (née Young).^[1] His education was funded by one of his mother's five sisters and her husband. He became a clerk in a solicitor's office, and qualified as a solicitor himself in 1888, being placed first in all of England in his final exams.

Career

Riddell later abandoned the law, however, and went into the newspaper business. By 1903 he was managing director of the News of the World and also owned other newspapers. A close friend and ally of David Lloyd George, he was knighted in 1909, on the recommendation of H. H. Asquith.^[2] During the First World War, he liaised between the government and the press and represented the British press barons at the Paris Peace Conference and later peace conferences. For these services he was created a Baronet, of Walton Heath in the County of Surrey, in 1918^[3] and raised to the peerage as Baron Riddell, of Walton Heath in the County of Surrey, in the 1920 New Year Honours.^[4][5] He was the author of several books, among them Some Things that Matter (1922),^[6] Lord Riddell's War Diary, 1914–18, and Lord Riddell's Intimate Diary of the Peace Conference and After.^[1] He was not impressed by his contemporary, Winston Churchill.

Personal life

Riddell married his cousin Annie, daughter of David William Allardice, in 1900. They had no children. He died in December 1934, aged 69, when the baronetcy and barony became extinct.^[1]

Footnotes

1. thepeerage.com George Allardice Riddell, 1st and last Baron Riddell
2. The London Gazette: no. 28275. p. 5805. 30 July 1909. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
3. The London Gazette: no. 30527. p. 2068. 15 February 1918.
4. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 31712. p. 1. 30 December 1919. Retrieved 2007-11-28.
5. The London Gazette: no. 31761. p. 1258. 30 January 1920.
6. Riddell, George Allardice Riddell. 1922. Some Things That Matter. New York: Reynolds Pub. Co.

References

• A. J. A. Morris (September 2004; online edition, October 2006). "‘Riddell, George Allardice, Baron Riddell (1865–1934)’". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35749. Retrieved 2007-11-28. (subscription required (help)). Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Obituary, The Times, 6 December 1934

External links

• Works by or about George Riddell, 1st Baron Riddell in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Europeana Collections 1914-1918 makes 425,000 First World War items from European libraries available online, including the Riddell Diaries