Dudley Ridout


Sir Dudley Howard Ridout was a British soldier of the Royal Engineers.

Background

He was born in Calcutta, British India to Major Joseph Bramley Ridout and Wilmot Beresford Hayter. His father was a British soldier who served on the Bhutan expedition with the 80th Regiment 1864-5. His father had been on the staff of the Hythe School of Musketry and was the captain of cadets at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario Canada. His grandfather Thomas Gibbs Ridout was deputy assistant commissary general during the War of 1812 and a cashier of the Bank of Canada from 1822 to 1861.

Education and career

Dudley Ridout graduated at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1885. He was an intelligence officer in South Africa from 1900 to 1902.
He served in World War I and was transferred to Singapore Command where from 1915 to 1921 he was General Officer Commanding the Troops in the Straits Settlements and a member of the Executive and Legislative Councils there. He retired in 1924.
He died in 1941 in the London borough of Richmond upon Thames and was buried in Richmond Cemetery, Section 8, grave number 9479.

Legacy

Ridout Row, the row of two terraces of eight small four roomed cottages with an outdoor courtyard on the ground of RMC, was named in honour of Dudley Howard Ridout's father, Captain Joseph Bramley Ridout. The Ridout Row was renovated and currently houses the Canadian Defence Academy headquarters.

Personal life

In 1904, Ridout married Maude Elizabeth Hutton, daughter of Charles Henry Hutton. They had a son, Colonel Dudley Gethin Bramley Ridout CBE, who commanded 1/6 South Staffordshires in Normandy 1944, and a daughter, Estelle Wilmot Hutton.

Books