Lieutenant, Australian Infantry
Born: August 24th 1886
Died: May 12th 1915
Age at Death: 28
Died of wounds, Gallipoli, May 12th 1915
A donation to the memorial statue has been made in honour of this soldier by Stephen Yiduo Chen (Sc. 2011-2016).
Victoria College, Manchester University Engineering Certificate, BSc Honours in Engineering 1907. Articled to Mr Lyster, Chief Engineer of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. Trans. To Australia as Assistant Engineer of lighthouses for the Commonwealth. Joined the Australian I.F. at the outbreak of war. Given a Commission and promoted to rank of Lieutenant. Went to Egypt and then to the Dardanelles. Died at sea on May 12th 1915 from wounds received in action on May 8th in Gallipoli.
Lieutenant Issac Althorp Ridgway (School House 1901-1904)
Issac Ridgway was born on the 24th August 1886 in Lymm, Cheshire. He was the youngest son and fourth child of Thomas Ridgway, a solicitor, and his wife Emily (née Dawbarn). After the College he went to Victoria University, Manchester, now part of Manchester University, from which he graduated with both a BSc and, in 1910, a Master’s degree in engineering; in 1911 he became a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers. He then emigrated to Australia, becoming in July 1911 the chief engineer at Freemantle Dock, Queensland and in December 1913 responsible for all the lighthouses on the Queensland coast. Owing to the importance of his job he had great difficulty obtaining permission to leave the lighthouse service to volunteer for the Australian Imperial Force, the Australian component of the famous ANZACs, on the outbreak of war, however on 16th December 1914 he received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force.
With the rest of the ANZACs Ridgway sailed to Egypt and then participated in the landings at Gallipoli on April 25th 1915. On 8th May 1915, during the advance on Krithia, he sustained two severe bullet wounds in the epigastrium, upper torso, and bladder from which he died on 12th May 1915 aboard the hospital ship HMHS Braemar Castle.
Ridgway was buried at sea but is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli, which includes the names of some 1242 ANZAC soldiers who were buried at sea after having died on hospital ships following the landings. He is also commemorated on a carved angel in St.John’s church, Freemantle, Australia. In March 1916 a letter from Ridgway’s parents was received by the Department of Trade and Customs in Melbourne, Australia stating that none of his personal effects had been sent to him. It is unknown they then had a response but it seems likely that they did not because in 2008 a kit bag containing the personal belongings of Lt. I.A. Ridgway 6th Battalion, AEF was found during a house clearance in Canberra.
Source: LEST WE FORGET Project, Brighton College 2014-15