HIGH HONOUR

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 111, 6 November 1935, Page 4

HIGH HONOUR

CAPTAIN J. S. M. RITCHIE

NOW A REAR-ADMIRAL

(Special to the "Evenlnn Post.") DUNEDIN, This Day. The second New Zealander to be appointed a flag 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 Dunedinand Diomede he had the honour of being the first New Zealandborn 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, Admiral of the Fleet' Lord Jellicoe's flagship. High administrative posts were given him, the positions he occupied being director of training and staff duties, executive commander of the Malaya, which made two historic missions to Germany and India, and naval attache at the British Embassy at Washington. His has been a distinguished record of service. Rear-Admiral Ritchie is a member of a highly-esteemed and prominent Dunedin family. He is the fourth son of the late Mr. J. M. Ritchie, who founded the stock and station firm which was later absorbed to *give the National Mortgage and Agency Company an interest in New Zealand. His brother, Mr. George R. Ritchie, is now generai manager of the company in the Dominion. An elder brother is Dr. Russell Ritchie, gynaecologist. Another brother, Mr. J. N. Ritchie, went to England at the outbreak.of the Great War, received a commission in the Seaforth Highlanders, and was killed in action in Mesopotamia. Rear-Admiral Ritchie was born in Dunedin on March 12, 1884, and was educated here and at Wanganui College. Before reaching the age of 15 years he left New Zealand to enter on the naval career in which he has acquitted himself with distinction and built up a record now honoured by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Rear-Admiral Ritchie, who was recently appointed aide-de-camp to his Majesty the King, was married in 1929 to Miss Joan Karslake, daughter of Colonel and Mrs. Karslake, of Silchester, near Reading, and Mrs. Ritchie now has her home in London.