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Margaret Susan Ryder (July 3, 1923 - November 2 2000), later Baroness Ryder, was a British peer who worked with Special Operations Executive in the World War II and afterwards led many charitable organizations, notably the Sue Ryder charity named after her.
She was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, and educated at Benenden School. When World War II broke out, she volunteered to the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, even if she was only 16 years of age. Soon she was assigned to the Polish section of the Special Operations Executive. Ryder's job was to drive SOE agents to the airfield where they would take off on their assignments in Europe. In 1943 she was posted to Tunisia and later to Italy.
After the war was over, Ryder volunteered to do relief work in Poland and expended to other charitable work as well. She was appointed OBE in 1957 and CMG in 1976.
In 1959 Ryder married Group Captain Leonard Cheshire. They received a Variety Club's Humanitarian Award in 1975. Ryder also accepted peerage in 1979 and took the title Baroness Ryder of Warsaw. In the House of Lords, Ryder was involved in debates about defense, drug abuse, housing, medical services, unemployment and race relations. The Queen Mother opened the Sue Ryder Foundation (later Sue Ryder Care) at Cavendish, Suffolk in 1979.
Ryder also continued to speak for Poland and when the communist rule there collapsed, she arranged lorries of medical and food aid. In 1989 Ryder made an appeal through The Daily Telegraph to obtain more funding and collected £40.000. However, in 1998 Ryder retired as a trustee of the Sue Ryder Foundation due to disagreement with other trustees and founded Bouverie Foundations, that distributed money donated to the Lady Ryder of Warsaw Appeals Fund.
Lady Ryder wrote two books of autobiography, And the Morrow is Theirs (1975) and Child of My Love (1986).
Lady Sue Ryder died in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
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