OBITUARY

Southland Times, Issue 22498, 7 December 1934, Page 7

OBITUARY

LORD RIDDELL. NEWSPAPER MAGNATE. (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) London, December 5. The death has occurred of Lord Riddell, who was 69 years of age. George Allardice Riddell, solicitor, newspaper proprietor and spokesman for the British Press in conflicts with officialdom, was born in London in May, 1865. In 1888 he qualified as a solicitor - and practised for some years at Cardiff., There he met another young solicitor, David Lloyd George, and a lifelong friendship began. Lord Riddell acquired an interest in the Western Mail of Cardiff and gradually turned from the law to newspaper management. As his later life showed, he had great aptitude for business. He could always see a bargain a little sooner than the next man. Going to London, he got control of the News of the World, a sensational Sunday paper, and in a few years developed it into a huge success. This made him a very wealthy man. Later he added, to his newspaper interests directorships .of George Newnes, Ltd., Country Life, Ltd., and C. Arthur Pearson, Ltd. Lord Riddell had meanwhile become vicechairman of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of London. His services on that body, particularly during the difficulties of the war period, were invaluable. His acuteness of understanding in all newspaper problems, his energy and resource, his firm, though genial manner, and perhaps also his close relations with Mr Lloyd George nearly always won the day in a conflict between narrow official views and the broadminded outlook of the newspaper man. When the war began, the censorship of messages from the front was chaotic. Press correspondents were treated as nuisances and were subject to the momentary whim of the commander of a unit. Lord Riddell took the matter in hand vigorously with the result that correspondents were given a definite status and censorship was organized on definite principles. At the peace conferences in Paris, Lord Riddell was the liaison officer between the conference and the Press. His method of doling out the day’s news was an innovation. He was always sympathetic and his geniality helped out the meagreness of the information with a sally of wit or a humorous story. He was equally successful at the Disarmament Conference in Washington in a similar post, becoming a great favourite with American journalists. In 1909 he was knighted. In 1918 he was made a baronet and two years later raised to the peerage as Baron Riddell of Walton Heath. He was an officer of the Legion of Honour and had the Grand Cordon of the Crown of Italy. On the retirement of Lord Bumham in January, 1928, he was made chairman of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association. Among his writings are “Some Things that Matter” (1922) and “More Things that Matter” (1925).