The Airmen's Stories - Sgt. M Ridley

Marmaduke Ridley, from Benwell, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was born in October 1915, the son of Marmaduke Ridley (1875-1936) and Isabella Crowe Robson Ridley (nee Brown), who married in 1914.

M Ridley Jnr. was educated at Atkinson Road Junior Technical School.

He joined the RAF in January 1931 as an Aircraft Apprentice and passed out in December 1933 as a Fitter, Aero Engines. He later applied for pilot training and was selected.

He joined 616 Squadron at Leconfield in early 1940. Over Dunkirk on 28th May, his Spitfire was badly damaged in what was the squadron's first real action of the war and he suffered a head wound.

On 26th August 1940 in Spitfire I R6633 Ridley was shot down and killed in combat over Dover, possibly by Hauptmann Fozo of 4/JG51. The aircrafyt crashed at South Road, River, Dover.

He was 24 years old and is buried in Folkestone New Cemetery, Kent.