delivered these to his superiors when he returned. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and was mentioned in the London Gazette which said "For conspicuous gallantry and judgement in the execution of a special mission." At the end of the war, an assessment of battle casualties on No. 60 Squadron determined that 115 pilots and observers had been either wounded, taken prisoner, were missing or had been killed. Ridley was the only one to escape captivity on the squadron and he is recorded as being back in Britain by the 13 October 2016, some two months after his aircraft failed on the field in France. Due to his high-profile involvement in ferrying spies, it was decided to withdraw Ridley from active operations over the front line in case he had to land in occupied territory again and be shot as a spy. Instead he was sent to head up B-Flight from No. 37 Squadron at Stow Maries Aerodrome. At this point, Ridley was a 19-year old lieutenant in charge of a new squadron. Whilst there, he was among many who launched their fighters to defend the south and east of England against attack from Gotha bombers and Zeppelin raids. In one such event, British anti-aircraft batteries located along the Thames Estuary confused the 37 Squadron Sopwith Pups with enemy aircraft and opened fire upon them. Ridley, like many others, was hit and had his engine cowling blown off at , and had to make an emergency landing at Rochford. Ridley was particularly galled by this because only a day earlier, he had flown his aircraft over the batteries so that the artillery men could see the outline of his aircraft and hear the noise of his engine. Ridley then took command of the newly formed No. 61 Squadron at Rochford in the summer of 1917, before taking command of No. 112 Squadron at Throwley in December of the same year. In the late stages of the war he commanded No. 28 Squadron at Grossa in Italy before returning to command No. 75 Squadron in England. When No. 75 Squadron was disbanded in 1919, Ridley became the commander of No. 39 Squadron. Later life Ridley was promoted to the rank of squadron leader in January 1925 and, in June of the same year, he married Lillias Elizabeth McAlpine, the daughter of Sir Robert McAlpine; they had three children together.