Frances Butcher was born on 7 March 1887 in Lewisham, South London. She trained as a Nursing Sister at the London Temperance Hospital and at Carey Hall. On 31 July 1920 she sailed to China, where she worked as a Nursing Sister at the Tientsin Hospital for the London Missionary Society. Frances Butcher resigned her position in October 1924 when she married William Sheldon Ridge.
William Sheldon Ridge was born in Selby, Yorkshire on 10 Jan 1875, and worked as a teacher. He married Mary Louisa Craven in 1903, who died in 1923. They went out to China in 1904 when Ridge became Headmaster of the Shanghai Municipal Public School for Chinese. In 1905 he became Assistant Editor of The National Review China , (1907-1916); The Peking Daily News (1917-1921); and The Far Eastern Times , (1922- 1926). In 1930 Ridge started The Chronicle , which he continued until 1939 when he retired. As well as doing journalistic work Ridge was Lecturer on Chinese geography and international relations at the North China Union Language School (from 1917), and Professor of English Language and Literature at the Chinese Government College of Salt Administration (from 1920) and at the Chinese Government University of Communications (from 1927). On their retirement the Ridges moved to Yenchi, and were interned by the Japanese in 1943. In 1945 Ridge died suddenly from a gall stone obstruction.
From the guide to the Ridge Family Papers, 1917-1945, (School of Oriental and African Studies)
