Ridley, William

First Bishop of Caledonia.

William Ridley was born in 1836 in Brixham, Devon, and was educated privately and in Islington. He was ordained deacon in St. Marylebone, England in 1866, then priest in Agra, India in 1867. From 1866 to 1870, he was a missionary with the Church Missionary Society, travelling to Peshawur and Afghanistan. From 1870-71 he was the English Chaplain in Dresden, Saxony, and from 1872 to 1879, held three consecutive vicarages in Yorkshire. In 1879, he was consecrated Bishop of Caledonia, and received an honourary D.D. from Lambeth. During his tenure, he travelled throughout the Diocese by boat and steamer (specifically, the Evangeline) and translated Gospels, Psalms, and the New Testament into the Tsimshian language. He resigned the See of Caledonia in 1904, and spend 1904 to 1908 visiting foreign missions. He became Rector of Compton Valence in Dorchester, England in 1908, where he died in 1911.