Sir Richmond Thackeray Willoughby Ritchie (6 August 1854 – 12 October 1912) was a British

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

. He spent most of his working life at the

India Office The India Office was a British government department in London established in 1858 to oversee the administration of the Provinces of India, through the British viceroy and other officials. The administered territories comprised most of the mo ...

, reaching the post of Permanent

Under-Secretary of State for India This is a list of Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State and Permanent Under-Secretaries of State at the India Office during the period of British rule between 1858 and 1937 for India (and Burma by extension), and for India and Burma from 193 ...

Life

He was born in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies 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 (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, 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 ...

(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. Background ...

. 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 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 an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his Satire, satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel ''Vanity Fair (novel), Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portra ...

, and a novelist and author in her own right. Their son William Thackeray Denis Ritchie married Margaret Paulina, daughter of Charles Booth.

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