Lieutenant, 2nd/5th Duke of Wellington’s.
Killed in action 20th November 1917.
Remembered on the Cambrai Memorial, France.
Member of the Manchester University Officer Training Corps.
John was the son of John & Clara Ridgway of Edgeley, Stockport. He was born in 1891 and educated at Stockport Technical School and the local Sunday school. He was a partner in Ridgway’s Drapers, Edgeley and engaged to be married when war broke out. He was a member of the University Officer Training Corps from July 1915 to November 1915 when he was gazetted to the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment). He received a minor injury during the Battle of the Somme in October 1916 and then in November 1916 was admitted to hospital after reporting sick with leg pains and tiredness. Diagnosed with Trench Fever he spent some time in the UK recovering. He was killed at the Battle of Cambrai while leading a platoon in an attack on a German strongpoint (the University Roll of Service and the battalion war diary record his date of death as 21st November 1917). He left effects worth £605 13s 2d to his father.