After making a fortune Riddell left the law and went into the newspaper business. By 1903 he was
managing director of the
News of the World and also owned other newspapers. A close friend and ally of
David Lloyd George, he was
knighted in 1909, on the recommendation of
H. H. Asquith. During the
First World War, he liaised between the government and the press and represented the British press barons at the
Paris Peace Conference and later peace conferences. For these services he was created a
baronet, of Walton Heath in the County of Surrey, in 1918 and raised to the peerage as
Baron Riddell, of Walton Heath in the County of Surrey, in the
1920 New Year Honours. The appointment almost foundered—he had been secretly divorced in 1900 and that would have disqualified him in the king's view. Riddell was the author of several books, among them
Some Things that Matter (1922), ''Lord Riddell's War Diary, 1914–1918
, and Lord Riddell's Intimate Diary of the Peace Conference and After''. In the published versions Riddell omitted much sensitive information and in February 1935 the original diaries were deposited in the
British Museum "to be reserved from the Public use for fifty years". In 1986, these were edited by McEwen, who included unpublished material that shed new light on political events. A survey of 100 books on this era of British history discovered that nine-tenths of them contained references to Riddell, with the majority quoting from his published works. He was not impressed by his contemporary,
Winston Churchill. On the other hand, he was a close confidant and financial supporter of
David Lloyd George from 1908 to 1922. His perceptive diary led
John Grigg to say he was "the nearest equivalent to a
Boswell in Lloyd George's life". In the summer of 1917, during Lloyd George's first year as prime minister, Riddell assessed his personality: His energy, capacity for work, and power of recuperation are remarkable. He has an extraordinary memory, imagination, and the art of getting at the root of a matter....He is not afraid of responsibility, and has no respect for tradition or convention. He is always ready to examine, scrap or revise established theories and practices. These qualities give him unlimited confidence in himself.... He is one of the craftiest of men, and his extraordinary charm of manner not only wins him friends, but does much to soften the asperities of his opponents and enemies. He is full of humour and a born actor....He has an instinctive power of divining the thoughts and intentions of people with whom he is conversing. His chief defects are: (1) Lack of appreciation of existing institutions, organisations, and stolid, dull people...their ways are not his ways and their methods are not his methods. (2) Fondness for a grandiose scheme in preference to an attempt to improve existing machinery. (3) Disregard of difficulties in carrying out big projects...he is not a man of detail. In 1905, Riddell and two associates took control of
Walton Heath Golf Club, which he would control until his death. Riddell brought the
News of the World Matchplay Championship to the club, which had been launched in 1903 at Sunningdale. Walton Heath would be the host course for the championship 21 times. Riddell was chairman of the committee that built and opened London's first
public golf courses in Richmond Park, which were opened in 1923 and 1925. ==Personal life==