RETIREMENT FROM SERVICE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21623, 6 November 1935, Page 10

RETIREMENT FROM SERVICE

f-T;-, " . o DISTINGUISHED CAREER IN ROYAL NAVY FIRST NEW ZE\LANDER TO GAIN CO?J?.IIS3ION [THE PRESS Special Service] DUNEDIN, November 5. The first New Zcalandcr to be appointed a f!cg officer of the Royal Navy, -Captain J. S. M. Ritchie, A.D.C., R.N., has been promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral and placed on the retired list. As captain of the cruisers Dunedin and Diomcde he had the honour of being the first New Zealand born naval man to command a ship of war in Dominion waters. He was Gunnery Commander of H.M.S. St. Vincent at the Battle of Jutland and later of H.M.S. Iron Duke, the Admiral of the Fleet Lord Jellicoe's flagship. High administrative posts were given him, positions he occupied being Director of Training and S aff Duties. Exjcutive Commander of the Malaya, which made two historical missions to Germany and India, and naval attache at the British Embassy at Washington. Rear-Admiral Ritchie is a member of a highlv esteemed and prominent D.mrdin family. He is the fourth son of the late Mr and Mrs J. M. Ritchie. His father founded, with Mr G. G. Russell, the stock and station firm wh.ch was later absorbed to give the National Mortgage and Agency Company an interest in New Zealand. His bro'her (Mr George R. Ritchie) is now general manager of the company in the Dominion. Rear-Admiral Ritchie was born in Dunedin on March 12, ICB4, and was educated here and at Wanganui College. Before reaching the age of 15 years he left New Zealand to enter on a naval career, in which he has acquitted himself with distinction and built up a record now honoured by the Lords of the Admiralty. Rear-Admiral Ritchie, who was recently appointed aide-de-camp to his Majesty the King, was married in 1029 to Miss Joan Karslake, a daughter of Colonel and Mrs Karslake, of Silchester, near Reading.