Sir Hubert Ridley

Sir Hubert Ridley was the bullying, short-tempered chairman of the board of the Newton & Ridley brewery. When Annie Walker won a Perfect Landlady competition in 1969 with a trip to Majorca as the prize, Jack refused to go because of a fear of flying. Annie went, reluctantly, with Ena Sharples, and there met old brewery friend Douglas Cresswell who asked the Walkers to move permanently to the island and run a bar there.

The Walkers accepted the offer and all were satisfied until Sir Hurbert read a memo about the plan. Having already torn a strip off Douglas earlier in the day for buying land in Sardinia to build another bar, he informed his middle-aged “junior” that the Walkers were too old for the intended Majorcan establishment as he had in mind someone aged between thirty and thirty-five. When Douglas tried to convince Sir Hubert of the suitability of the Walkers, he was curtly told to lose his irritating habit of arguing. Douglas summoned the Walkers and told them that the plan did not have board approval.