Sir Richmond Thackeray Willoughby Ritchie (6 August 1854 – 12 October 1912) was a British civil servant. He spent most of his working life at the India Office, reaching the post of Permanent

Under-Secretary of State for India This is a list of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State and Permanent Under-Secretary of State, Permanent Under-Secretaries of State at the India Office during the British India, period of British rule be ...

Life

He was born in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, British India, the third son of the jurist William Ritchie (1817–1862) and his wife, Augusta Charlotte Trimmer.''India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947'' He was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

(matriculated 1874; B.A. 1878). In 1877 Ritchie entered the India Office through open competition, as a junior clerk. He acted as Private Secretary to a number Under-Secretaries of State, both Parliamentary and Permanent: from 1895 to 1902 he worked for

Lord George Hamilton Lord George Francis Hamilton (17 December 1845 – 22 September 1927) was a British Conservative Party politician of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who served as First Lord of the Admiralty and Secretary of State for India. Backgroun ...

. He then was transferred to the post of Secretary in the Political and Secret Department. Ritchie was knighted in 1907, and upon the retirement of Sir

Arthur Godley John Arthur Godley, 1st Baron Kilbracken, (17 June 1847 – 27 June 1932), was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and British civil servant and the longest serving, and probably the most influential, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for India. Earl ...

in 1910 he became the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, a position he continued to hold until his death.

Family

In 1877 Ritchie married his second cousin, Anne Isabella Thackeray, the eldest daughter of the novelist

William Makepeace Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray (; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was a British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel ''Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and t ...

, and a novelist and author in her own right.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ritchie, Richmond 1854 births 1912 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for India Private secretaries in the British Civil Service Companions of the Imperial Service Order Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath

Life

Family

See also

References

External links