Sir Lindsay Ride was born in 1898 and raised in Victoria, Australia. In 1917 he joined the Australian Imperial Force and left home to fight on the Western Front during WWI. He was injured twice and left the Army and returned to Australia in 1919.
After his return, Ride enrolled in the University of Melbourne to study medicine. In 1922 he was awarded a Victoria Rhodes Scholarship and traveled to England to study at New College, Oxford. Both in Melbourne and at Oxford Ride was highly involved in student life and athletics. After graduation he remained in England, was accepted into the Royal College of Surgeons, and demonstrated a talent for medical research. In 1925 he married a Canadian woman named Mary Margaret Louise Fenty with whom he later had two sons and two daughters.
Ride moved to Hong Kong in 1928 following his appointment as professor of physiology at the University of Hong Kong. The majority of his research focused on blood typing. In addition to his duties as a professor, Ride was also involved in the Hong Kong Cricket Club, his church, and was a founding member of the Hong Kong Singers. He was also appointed as a justice of the peace and received a commission in the Hong Kong Volunteer Defense Corps (HKVDC).
As war in the Pacific became imminent, Ride sent his family home to Australia in 1938. During the Battle of Hong Kong he was the commander of the Hong Kong Field Ambulance and later sent to the Japanese camp for prisoners of war at Sham Shui Po. His incarceration in the camp did not last long, however, and he escaped to China on January 9, 1942, mere weeks after he was captured. He was later awarded an O.B.E for this daring escape. Once in China he founded and controlled the British Army Aid Group (BAAG) which helped others escape Hong Kong and collected intelligence information.
After the war Ride returned to his position at HKU. In 1949 he was appointed Vice Chancellor and oversaw most of the rebuilding of the University which had been heavily damaged during the war. He remained in this position until 1964. Ride was known for his paternalistic style of administration and during his tenure the student population increased dramatically and the University grew in size.
Ride’s first marriage didn’t survive the long separation during WWII and in 1954 he married his former secretary Violet May Winchell. During this time he participated in many of the same activities that he had enjoyed before the way. He remained involved with the military and served as an honorary colonel of the Hong Kong Regiment. He also remained involved in his church and the Hong Kong Singers. Ride was knighted in 1962.
In 1954 Ride, along with his second wife May, began researching and documenting grave stones and other monuments in Macau. They had to pause their research due to the restoration of the Old Protestant Cemetery, but began again and continued until the death of Lindsay Ride in 1977. The book, titled The Voices of Macao Stones, was finally published in 1999.
