Richard Ridgeway

{{Infobox military person

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Richard Ridgeway

| honorific_suffix =

| native_name =

| native_name_lang =

| image = Richard Kirby Ridgeway (1848–1924).png

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1848|08|18}}

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1924|10|11|1848|08|18}}

| birth_place = Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland

| death_place = Harrogate, Yorkshire, England

| placeofburial = Lawnswood crematorium, Leeds, Yorkshire

| placeofburial_label =

| placeofburial_coordinates =

| nickname =

| birth_name =

| allegiance = United Kingdom

| branch = British Indian Army

| serviceyears = 1868–

| rank = Colonel

| servicenumber =

| unit =

| commands =

| battles =

| battles_label =

| awards = Victoria Cross
Order of the Bath

| relations =

| laterwork =

| signature =

| website =

}}

Colonel Richard Kirby Ridgeway {{post-nominals|VC|CB}} (18 August 1848 – 11 October 1924) was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Biography

Ridgeway was born on 18 August 1848 in Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland. He was commissioned into the British Army on 8 January 1868, and promoted to lieutenant on 14 February 1870.Hart′s Army list, 1900

=Victoria Cross=

On 22 November 1879, he was 31 years old, and a captain in the Bengal Staff Corps, 44th Gurkha Rifles (later 1/8th Gurkha Rifles), British Indian Army, during the Naga Hills Expedition. On that date, during the final assault on Konoma, Eastern Frontier of India, under heavy fire from the enemy, Captain Ridgeway rushed up to a barricade and attempted to tear down the planking surrounding it to enable him to effect an entrance. While doing this he was wounded severely in the right shoulder.{{London Gazette |issue=24843 |date=11 May 1880 |page=2968 }}

=Later career=

He was appointed assistant adjutant-general of the Peshawar district, part of the Punjab Command, on 29 April 1895, and was promoted to the rank of colonel on 8 January 1898. After an extended furlough back home, he resigned in early 1900, and did not return to India.{{Cite news |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CS169272954/TTDA |newspaper=The Times |publication-place=London |title=Naval & Military intelligence |date=26 March 1900 |page=10 |issue=36099 |access-date=2025-03-19 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}

He died at the age of 76 in Harrogate, Yorkshire on 11 October 1924.

Notes and references

The Register of the Victoria Cross (1981, 1988 and 1997)
{{cite journal|first=Brian D. H.|last=Clarke|title=A register of awards to Irish-born officers and men|journal=The Irish Sword|volume=XVI|issue=64|pages=185–287|year=1986}}
Ireland's VCs {{ISBN|1-899243-00-3}} (Dept of Economic Development, 1995)
Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
Irish Winners of the Victoria Cross (Richard Doherty & David Truesdale, 2000)