Francis Ambrose Ridley, usually known as Frank Ridley (22 February 1897 – 27 March 1994) was a Marxist and secularist of the United Kingdom.

Life

Ridley was educated at Sedbergh School and Salisbury Theological College. He did not enter the Church, though he did gain a theology licentiate at Durham University in 1920. He later abandoned Christianity completely.

Political activities

From 1925 to 1964, Ridley spoke every week at Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park. Ridley was one of the founders of the Marxian League (aka Marxist League) in 1929. This small group might have become the British Section of Trotsky's International Left Opposition, but in 1931 Ridley and another member, Chandu Ram (H.R. Aggarwala) wrote Thesis on the British Situation, the Left Opposition and the Comintern, with which Trotsky disagreed. Ridley then joined the Independent Labour Party, writing regularly in their paper. Following the Second World War, he was in close contact with the Council communist Anton Pannekoek.

Secularist activities

Ridley was president of the National Secular Society from 1951 to 1963. He edited The Freethinker from 1951 to 1954.

Selected bibliography

Articles