Sir Richmond Thackeray Willoughby Ritchie KCB ISO (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.[1]

Life

He was born in Calcutta, British India, the third son of the jurist William Ritchie (1817–1862) and his wife, Augusta Charlotte Trimmer.[2] He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1874; B.A. 1878).[1][3]

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. He then was transferred to the post of Secretary in the Political and Secret Department.[1]

Ritchie was knighted in 1907, and upon the retirement of Sir Arthur Godley in 1910 he became the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, a position he continued to hold until his death.[1]

Family

In 1877 Ritchie married his second cousin, Anne Isabella Thackeray, the eldest daughter of the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, and a novelist and author in her own right.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Kaul, Chandrika. "Ritchie, Sir Richmond Thackeray Willoughby". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35764. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947
  3. ^ "Ritchie, Richmond Thackeray Willoughby (RTCY874RT)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

External links

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