To read this Life of the Day complete with a picture of the subject, visit http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/lotw/2010-08-30 Ridding, (Caroline) Mary (1862-1941), Sanskrit and Pali scholar, was born on 30 August 1862 in Meriden, Warwickshire, the daughter of William Ridding (1830-1900), vicar of Meriden, who had been a notable cricketer, and his wife, Caroline Selina Caldecott. Her uncle was George Ridding, headmaster of Winchester College and later first bishop of Southwell, whose second wife, Lady Laura Ridding (the daughter of the first earl of Selborne), was close to the young woman. A Girton contemporary recalled that although Mary Ridding's mother came from an old Warwickshire family, her father was of modest means, so that she and her brother had to make their own way in the world. Mary Ridding attended Bishopsgate Training College and in 1883 won a higher local scholarship to Girton College, Cambridge. She was placed in the second division of the second class in part one of the classical tripos, specializing in philology and Sanskrit, in 1886; she took her MA in 1923 after Cambridge University allowed women to receive titular degrees. At Girton, Ridding attended the lectures of Robert Alexander Neil, the university lecturer in Sanskrit, and met Edward Byles Cowell, the professor of Sanskrit, who at that time did not admit women to his university lectures. Soon afterwards, Cowell's wife wrote to her, 'we have not the heart to keep you from anything', which began a nineteen-year friendship lasting until Professor Cowell's death (Cambridge Review). Ridding later wrote 'Professor Cowell and his pupils' in Indian Studies Presented to Professor Rapson, volume 6 of the Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies (1931). After 1886 Ridding continued her studies, supporting herself by tutoring. In 1889 she was employed as a visiting classics mistress in London, living partly in Cambridge and partly in London before moving permanently to Cambridge. An extremely erudite scholar, Ridding knew Sanskrit, Pali, and some Bengali and Hindi. One of her first scholarly endeavours was to translate the Sanskrit romance Kadambari (Oriental Translation Fund publications, new ser., 11, 1896). She was particularly interested in Tibet, reviewing Tibetan books for the Journal of Asiatic Studies for many years. An Indian research student wrote of her, 'I had known of Miss Ridding's great reputation as an Orientalist in India, where her translation of the Sanskrit story Bana's Kadambari was justly famous ... She loved India, and her appreciation of its philosophy touched me deeply' (Girton Review). Perhaps Mary Ridding's greatest contribution to scholarship was her work as a cataloguer. After Cowell's death in 1903 she arranged the disposition of his books, and catalogued those that went to the Cambridge University Library. In this capacity, she was the first woman to be officially employed by the library. Of great use to scholars is her catalogue of the Sanskrit portion of the library's 'Hand-list of Oriental manuscripts'; she later began a complete catalogue, which was finished by Professor L. de la Vallee Poussin of Belgium. Equally important is her catalogue of the library's Tibetan block-printed books, hundreds of volumes comprising the Tibetan Buddhist canon, the Kanjur, along with other works. Mary Ridding had many interests beyond her south Asian studies. She enjoyed travelling abroad to conferences, and in 1893 took a trip to Greece, suggested and partly arranged by her friend Emily Davies, the founder of Girton, in recognition of her achievements in a new field for women. Ridding loved classical music, particularly Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin's works, which she played on the piano. She was a deeply committed Anglican, maintaining a close relationship with Edmund Gough de Salis Wood, vicar of St Clement's, Cambridge, her spiritual adviser. Contemporaries remembered her as a devoted friend and a true intellectual, but also as a born eccentric. In her last years she lived among clutter in a house above Market Hill in Cambridge, where she eschewed such modern conveniences as radios, telephones, and vacuum cleaners. She died in a nursing home in Cambridge on 9 November 1941. She left Girton College her south Asian books, as well as her valuable collection of fir! st editions of her favourite writer, Charlotte Yonge. In her memory the college founded an annual prize for reading aloud. Fernanda Helen Perrone Sources Cambridge Review (28 Feb 1942) + Girton Review, Michaelmas term (1942) + A. Adam, 'Notes on C. M. Ridding', 1942, Girton Cam. + K. T. Butler and H. I. McMorran, eds., Girton College register, 1869-1946 (1948) + B. Stephen, Emily Davies and Girton College (1927) + Boase, Mod. Eng. biog. [William Ridding] Archives Girton Cam. Likenesses photograph, Girton College, Cambridge [see illus.]

Thanks to John and Harsh for bringing to our attention such an interesting scholar. Its anecdotes like theirs that help paint a better picture of life during my grandfather's period in India. Cheers Ainslie.