LOSS TO DUNEDIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26614, 10 November 1947, Page 4

LOSS TO DUNEDIN

DEATH OF DR RITCHIE RESPECTED PRACTITIONER The medical profession and tire Dunedin public suffered a severe loss in the sudden death on Saturday night of Dr Russell Ritchie, who was recognised as one of the most respected general practitioners in Otago. Dr Ritchie, who was still in practice, was aged 69. Born in Dunedin, Dr Ritchie attended the Loretto School, Scotland, during the years 1894 to 1897, and entered the Medical School at Dunedin in 1898. After graduating, he went to London for further experience and gained the degree of M.R.C.S. He returned to Dunedin and settled in the city as a general practitioner. He was greatly interested in obstetrics, in which branch of the profession he built up a well-deserved reputation. For many years he was

associated with the Medical School in the arduous task of teaching obstetrics, which he did in the most practical manner at the old Bachelor Hospital in Forth street. The conditions there were far from perfect, but he shared later in the greater advantages of the Queen Mary Hospital, with which he was associated for seven years. He carried on his lecturing for a longer period than is usual because of the shortage of staff during the war, and was recognised as a man who gave the utmost devotion to his patients and to his students. His services to obstetrics were recognised towards the close of his teaching career, when he was elected a* member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The strenuous nature of Dr Ritchie’s professional work restricted his opportunities to take part in other activities, but he found time to devote some attention to art and was prominent in the affairs of the Art Gallery. In his younger days he was a keen tennis player, and more latterly enjoyed a game of bowls at the Fernhill Club, of which he was a member. Dr Ritchie came of a well-known Dunedin family, his father, Mr J. M. Ritchie, having been one of the founders of the firm of Russell and Ritchie, which later became the National Mortgage and Agency Company. He is survived by his wife, four sons, James. John,. Anthony and Michael, and two daughters, Mrs Derek Orbell and Miss Joan Ritchie.