Lt-Col Barbara Ridler, who died on August 10 aged 95, was the friendly dragon who presided, as establishments' officer, over the administration of the Conservative Research Department during the 1970s, when it operated out of two elegant but down-at-heel Georgian houses in Westminster – Nos 24 and 34, Old Queen Street.
Lt-Col Barbara Ridler
6:23PM BST 29 Sep 2011
Comments The raffish atmosphere of the CRD during this turbulent phase in the party's history, first under the directorship of James Douglas, then Chris Patten, has been well described by Matthew Parris in his memoir Chance Witness (2002). It was in no small measure thanks to Barbara Ridler's benign if somewhat military discipline that parliamentary briefings, policy papers and speeches for opposition spokesmen, not to mention the door-stopping Campaign Guides, were produced on time (and without too many typographical errors).
One of her main responsibilities was to manage the secretaries, mostly girls from "good families" several notches up the social scale from the "desk officers" for whom they worked. Legend has it that they were recruited, at Barbara Ridler's insistence, under a "1,000-acre test" (possibly on the ground that no girl whose father owned anything less could possibly live on CRD wages). Once hired, the assorted Amandas and Victorias occupied the best rooms overlooking St James's Park, while their nominal bosses made do with pokier billets.
Barbara Ridler was valiant in her defence of her "girls", lending a sympathetic ear to tales of broken romances and taking their part against unreasonable demands for late dictation or excessive photocopying (even at times of crisis she would always insist on turning off one of the department's two photocopiers "to give it a rest").
When one desk officer, driven to distraction by his secretary's typographical mistakes, emptied a bottle of Tippex fluid on the offender's head, Barbara Ridler stormed into his room brandishing a ruler and gave the young man a good spanking, shouting: "Do you know the damage Tippex can do to a young woman's hair?"
Her morning and afternoon "rounds" of the office, with clipboard, smart suit, ramrod back and lavender grey hair, made even the most Rabelaisian of desk officers sit a little straighter in their seats. Though generally tolerant of youthful foibles (using her sense of smell she once detected a half-eaten lamb chop in a researcher's desk), during the three-day week she insisted that a shortage of light and heat should lead to no slippage in standards of hygiene, installing bars of super-strength carbolic soap in all the washrooms for the purpose.
She was born Barbara Mary Dodd at Birkenhead on October 3 1915 into a Roman Catholic family. Her father, a solicitor, had fought at Gallipoli as a captain in the Signal Service of the Royal Engineers; her brother, Michael, would serve in the Army in the Second World War at Anzio and Monte Cassino. As a young girl she was keen on sailing and became a member of the Royal Mersey Yacht Club.
Barbara was educated at the Convent of the Holy Child, Harrogate. In January 1942 she volunteered for service in the ATS (which became the WRAC in 1949), and was commissioned later that year. During the war, she carried out administrative and technical signal duties in mixed signal units, rising to the rank of captain. She remained in the service after the war, being promoted lieutenant-colonel and occupying senior positions in the War Office and Ministry of Defence.
From 1962 to 1964 she served as adviser to GOC-in-C Far East Land Forces, responsible for all ranks of the WRAC in the region, as well as overseeing military building programmes on the island of Singapore.
During her years of service Barbara Ridler had frequent contact with Princess Mary, the Princess Royal, controller commandant of the WRAC. On one occasion during a visit by the Princess to HQ, Northern Command, the Princess held out her hand to shake that of a general's young daughter who, unbeknown to Barbara Ridler, had concealed a hamster in it.
Barbara Ridler joined CRD following her retirement from the Service in 1970 and remained there until 1980. Her retirement party, held at a time when the department was being moved, amid much protest, into the party's main headquarters at Central Office, Smith Square, marked the end of a happy era. The following year she was appointed OBE.
Barbara Ridler loved opera and racing, and was an avid reader of newspapers and of biographies, particularly of those with whom she had worked at CRD. She continued to take an interest in the lives of her "girls" and delighted in their offspring when they came to visit. Many remained friends throughout her life.
Her wartime marriage to Herbert Ridler was dissolved in 1949, and in 1960 she bought a flat in Willingdon, East Sussex, with her friend Col Rachel Green, whom she had met at staff college. They lived there for 48 years, enjoying many happy holidays together in Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy, after which they moved to sheltered accommodation in Eastbourne.
Rachel Green survives her.
Barbara was educated at the Convent of the Holy Child, Harrogate. In January 1942 she volunteered for service in the ATS (which became the WRAC in 1949), and was commissioned later that year. During the war, she carried out administrative and technical signal duties in mixed signal units, rising to the rank of captain. She remained in the service after the war, being promoted lieutenant-colonel and occupying senior positions in the War Office and Ministry of Defence.
From 1962 to 1964 she served as adviser to GOC-in-C Far East Land Forces, responsible for all ranks of the WRAC in the region, as well as overseeing military building programmes on the island of Singapore.
During her years of service Barbara Ridler had frequent contact with Princess Mary, the Princess Royal, controller commandant of the WRAC. On one occasion during a visit by the Princess to HQ, Northern Command, the Princess held out her hand to shake that of a general's young daughter who, unbeknown to Barbara Ridler, had concealed a hamster in it.
Barbara Ridler joined CRD following her retirement from the Service in 1970 and remained there until 1980. Her retirement party, held at a time when the department was being moved, amid much protest, into the party's main headquarters at Central Office, Smith Square, marked the end of a happy era. The following year she was appointed OBE.
Barbara Ridler loved opera and racing, and was an avid reader of newspapers and of biographies, particularly of those with whom she had worked at CRD. She continued to take an interest in the lives of her "girls" and delighted in their offspring when they came to visit. Many remained friends throughout her life.
Her wartime marriage to Herbert Ridler was dissolved in 1949, and in 1960 she bought a flat in Willingdon, East Sussex, with her friend Col Rachel Green, whom she had met at staff college. They lived there for 48 years, enjoying many happy holidays together in Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy, after which they moved to sheltered accommodation in Eastbourne.
Rachel Green survives her.
