Matt Ridley, the low-profile chairman of Northern Rock, broke off his stillness on Tuesday to blame unprecedented market situations for the bank’s troubles, and to show commonness with his stressed chief executive Adam Applegarth.

Dr Ridley, a zoologist and author, said, “The board takes full responsibility. We’re not solely blaming the market, but the credit crunch was unprecedented and foreseen by nobody.” He said of Mr Applegarth, “Adam’s the right man to get us through this. He has my absolute backing and there’s not a cigarette paper between him and me.”

Mr. Ridley has been on the Northern Rock panel for the last 13 years, the last three as chairman, and has seen it shake off its building society roots and start the planned move to tap the wholesale securities industry for the majority of its financing.

His father Viscount Ridley was chairman from 1987 to 1992 and remained a board’s member for 30 years.

Asked whether he had thought exiting, Dr Ridley sounded out, “I serve at the behest of shareholders. If they want me to resign that’s up to them.”

On the issue of whether the company’s directors had taken big pay packages but refused to accept any blame when things went wrong, he said: “I don’t accept there is reward without culpability.”

Last year, Ridley was paid £300,000 for his part-time job, whereas Mr. Applegarth got £1.3 million. He defended the bank’s evidence, stating the plan was always clear and completely understood by everyone.

Dr. Ridley delineated how the wholesale markets blocked on August 9.

“That was the moment when markets became impossibly difficult to operate in. We did many many things to ensure we remained liquid until it became impossible to go any further. That’s when we called the Bank of England,” he said.

He told that the panel’s job now was to progressively reorganize investor value. “That means back to business as usual.”