was drafted by Ridley and Patten and edited by Angus Maude. In 1979, Ridley became Director of the Conservative Research Department. Following the Conservative victory in the general election of 1979, he was briefly at 10, Downing Street, before returning to the Treasury as a Special Advisor to Sir Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson as Chancellors of the Exchequer between 1979 and 1984. In his memoir Inside the Bank of England, Christopher Dow notes that in 1979 only Ridley was brought into the Treasury as a political advisor, and that he was trusted even though he was not a monetarist. Ridley played a leading part in forming the new government's policy favouring privatisation. Ridley's final post in the world of government was as advisor to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster for part of 1985. That year, he was knighted and made a career move into merchant banking. He was a director of Hambros Bank and of Hambros PLC from 1985 to 1997, and of Sunday Newspaper Publishing PLC from 1988 to 1990, serving as chairman in 1990. He was also Chairman of the Lloyd's of London Names Advisory Committee for 1995–1996, then a member of the Council of Lloyds and of the Lloyds Regulatory Board from 1997 to 1999. After leaving Hambros, he was a non-executive director of Leopold Joseph Holdings from 1997 to 2004, of Morgan Stanley Bank International from 2006 to 2013 and of Hampden Agencies Ltd from 2007 to 2012, and then of several Equitas insurance companies from 2009 to date. He served on the National Lottery Charities Board from 1994 to 2000, most of that time as its Deputy chairman, and since 2003 has been a member of the Council of the British School at Athens. Private life In 1970 Ridley married firstly his second cousin Lady Katharine Asquith, one of the daughters of Julian Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith, but this ended in divorce in 1976. In 1981, he married secondly Margaret Anne Passmore, and they have three sons. He is a member of the Garrick Club and the Political Economy Club. Christopher Dow recalled in his memoirs that when invited to lunch at the Bank of England Ridley habitually arrived by motorcycle. Publications Europe, the Challenge of Diversity (Routledge & Kegan Paul, Chatham House Papers series, 1985), with Helen Wallace Notes 1942 births Living people British people of Russian descent