Stewart Gordon Ridley & L.S. Garside
Location:
Saint Peters Church
Redcar
North Yorkshire
TS10 3JL
Details on cross:
top crest
RFC
LIEUT: SG RIDLEY RFC
18th JUNE 1916
1st AM J S GARSIDE
20th JUNE 1916
The cross is high up on the west wall of the Lady Chapel and is difficult to access and to read tags. Ridley also appears on the war memorial in the church. The cross itself seems to be made of pine and has a thick shaft and cross beam. The RFC badge lies at the top of the cross.
Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved):
The name and the name also of First airman L.S. Garside (his co-pilot who died a few days later) are carved or possibly pyrographed into the cross beam with their respective dates of death.
Cross dimensions (millimetres please) approximate
Shaft Height: 1000mm
Cross beam width: 600mm
Width of wood: 100mm
Thickness or depth: 40mm
Other information
Mounting to wall: pinned but there are signs at the top of cross that it might have been hung from a mounting at a previous time.
Detailing: Bare
Evidence of use in field: None
Surface insertion depth (into ground if apparent): n/a
Finish (varnish, paint, oiled, unfinished etc): Light clear varnish on pine, some paint marks from recent decoration.
Condition (cracked, paint peeling, woodwork, damage etc): some wear but in generally good condition.
2nd Lieutenant Stewart Gordon Ridley, Yorkshire Regiment and Royal Flying Corps
Blog here
More information here
Survey and photographs – Dr Martyn Hudson
Date of survey: 25/08/2016