Ridge was commissioned into the
Royal Engineers in 1995. He served as commanding officer of
26 Engineer Regiment in which role he was deployed to
Afghanistan. He went on to become commander of
8 Engineer Brigade in October 2015 and in that role led the
British response to
Hurricane Irma, an extremely powerful
Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread destruction across its path, in September 2017. He went on to become Chief, Joint Force Operations at
Permanent Joint Headquarters in
Northwood in September 2017. He was appointed a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the
2018 New Year Honours. He was to be promoted to major general and appointed
General Officer Commanding of
Army Recruiting and Initial Training Command in April 2020. However, he retired from the British Army on 25 April 2020, and joined the Civil Service. , he is Director of Defence Innovation at the Ministry of Defence. ==References==