MISS ISABEL MACDONALD

Evening Star, Issue 22895, 1 March 1938, Page 9

MISS ISABEL MACDONALD

MARRIED AT REGISTRY OFFICE

A QUIET WEDDING

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright

LONDON, February 28 (Received March 1, at 8 a.m.)

Miss Ishbel MacDonald and Mr Ridgley were married at a registry office in Hampstead. The arrangements were kept a secret to avoid undue publicity. The wedding was quiet owing to family mourning. Miss Ishbel’s sister, Sheila, and Dr James Bonar, an old friend of Mr Ramsay MacDonald, were present.

DARTS AND ROMANCE

MISS ISHBEL’S ENGAGEMENT.

LONDON, February 14

The engagement of Miss Ishbel MacDonald, daughter of the late Mr J. Ramsay MacDonald, the former Prime Minister, to Mr Norman Ridgley, of Speen, where Miss MacDonald is licensee of the local inn, reveals a romance which surprised all her friends, but which has been a secret of the villagers for months. To-day, the little Buckinghamshire village of Speen is celebrating the fact that its darts champion and big drum player in the local band has captured the famous hostess of Royalty and of the world’s greatest statesmen and diplomats. Soon after Miss MacDonald became licensee of the Plough Inn at Speen in 1936, she met Mr IRidgley in the public bar. Mr IRidgley was captain of the Plough Inn darts team, which Miss MacDonald often took for-contcsts with neighbouring hotels. In the words of a villager: “It was not long before they were heard using their Christian names. Anyone with half an eye could have told they were in love. They may have thought that they kept it a secret, but we have only been waiting for the announcement of the engagement.” Meanwhile, Mr Ridgley shared a farm with two men friends, and worked in the daytime as a house decorator and painter. When jobs were scarce he assisted local electricians.

The couple plan to live at the Plough Inn and to carry on a small basketwork business left by Mr Ridgley’s father. The pair are both 34 years of age. Miss MacDonald has simple tastes, and does not smoko or drink or use cosmetics.