General Sir Neil Methuen Ritchie, (29 July 1897 – 11 December 1983) was a British Army officer who served in the First and Second World Wars. During the Second World War he commanded the British Eighth Army in the North African campaign from November 1941 until he was dismissed in June 1942 after a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Gazala.
A 1914 graduate of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Ritchie was commissioned into the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders). During the First World War he served on the Western Front, in the Mesopotamian campaign, where he was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order, and in the Sinai and Palestine campaign, where he was awarded the Military Cross. Between the wars he participated in the Occupation of the Rhineland, attended the Staff College, Camberley, and commanded a battalion in Palestine during the Arab revolt.
During the Second World War he served with the British Expeditionary Force in the Battle of France in 1940 as the Brigadier General Staff of II Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Alan Brooke. Although Ritchie's career looked finished after Gazala, he was given command of XII Corps, which he led throughout the campaign in North West Europe, from June 1944 until Victory in Europe Day in May 1945.
After the war he was given the Scottish Command and was Governor of Edinburgh Castle from 1945 to 1947. He commanded Far East Land Forces from 1947 to 1949 and led the Joint Services Mission in Washington, DC, from 1949 until his retirement in 1951. Afterwards he emigrated to Canada, where he pursued a career in business.
Neil Methuen Ritchie was born in Essequibo, British Guiana, on 29 July 1897, the third child of a Scottish planter, Dugald MacDougall Ritchie, and his wife Anna Catherine Leggatt. He had an older brother and sister, and a younger sister. His brother Alan MacDougall Ritchie became a brigadier in the British Army. His father's sugar cane business was ruined by a crop disease, and the family moved to British Malaya, where he established a rubber plantation. Ritchie was educated at Lancing College, a boarding school, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
After the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Ritchie passed out from Sandhurst on 16 December and was, at the age of 17, commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders). Among his fellow cadets was another future general, John Grover. As he was too young, Ritchie was not sent overseas until 18 May 1915. He served initially on the Western Front with the 1st Battalion, Black Watch, one of the two Regular Army battalions in the regiment, which was then part of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division. He was wounded during the Battle of Loos on 26 September, and was promoted to lieutenant on 2 October while he was in hospital.
After recovering from his injuries, Ritchie was promoted to the temporary rank of captain on 2 March 1916, and made an acting captain on 22 April. He joined the 2nd Battalion, the other Regular Army battalion in the regiment, which was part of the 21st (Bareilly) Brigade in the 7th (Meerut) Division, a British Indian Army division, serving in the Middle East in the Mesopotamian campaign. He was designated acting battalion adjutant on 24 April, and he was confirmed in the role on 5 January 1917. The battalion participated in the capture of Baghdad in March, and was one of the first units to enter the city. It then fought in the Battle of Istabulat on 21 April. Ritchie contracted paratyphoid and was evacuated to Bombay. For his services in Mesopotamia, he was mentioned in despatches. He was made a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order on 25 August, and promoted to the substantive rank of captain on 19 November.
Ritchie rejoined the 2nd Battalion in December and resumed his role of adjutant. In late December the 7th (Meerut) Division was sent to Palestine to participate in the Sinai and Palestine campaign. Ritchie was awarded the Military Cross on 15 February 1919 for his actions during the Battle of Sharon on 19 September 1918. His citation read:During the action against the Turkish Tabsor position on September 19th, 1918, and during the subsequent advance, he was invariably to the fore and set a fine example of coolness, courage and utter disregard of danger. When the regiment occupied the El Medjel position on the evening of September 19th, 1918, Capt. Ritchie carried a Lewis gun up part of the way as its carrier was exhausted, and thereby materially assisted in driving off an enemy picquet which was holding up the attack on top of the hill. His services throughout the two attacks, and the subsequent trying marches, were of inestimable value to the regiment.
Ritchie remained in the army during the interwar period. The 2nd Battalion returned to Scotland in 1919. In 1920, it joined the Occupation of the Rhineland, stationed at Marienburg, a suburb of Cologne. Among the other officers in the 2nd Battalion at this time was Major Archibald Wavell, who commanded one of its companies. Ritchie continued to serve as adjutant until 28 February 1921, when he returned to the regimental depot in Perth, Scotland, in command of a training company. Although he enjoyed the lifestyle of a regular army officer, with plenty of opportunities for shooting, fishing and dancing, he found it hard to make ends meet on a captain's salary, and considered leaving the army; Wavell counselled him to remain. From 18 July 1923 until 5 October 1927, Ritchie served under Wavell as a General Staff Officer Grade 3 (GSO3) at the War Office. Ritchie attended the Staff College, Camberley, as a student from 1929 to 1930.
On completion of the staff college course, Ritchie returned to his regiment, which was now serving at Meerut in British India. He was a General Staff Officer Grade 2 (GSO2) with Northern Command, India, from 2 April 1933 until 2 April 1937. While there he was promoted for the first time in almost sixteen years, to brevet major on 1 July 1933, followed by substantive major on 2 June 1934, and brevet lieutenant colonel on 1 January 1936. He encountered Brigadier Claude Auchinleck, who commanded the Peshawar Brigade in the region. On 4 December 1937, Ritchie married Catherine Taylor of Kingston, Ontario, Canada, the daughter of James Arnott Minnes, a partner in a warehousing firm, in Chelsea, London. They had a son and a daughter.
On 3 January 1938 Ritchie transferred from the Black Watch, which by now he had been with for just over twenty-three years, to the King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster), and was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He became commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, King's Own, on the same date. In September the battalion was sent to Palestine to perform internal security duties during the Arab revolt. He commanded the battalion until August 1939, shortly before the Second World War began in September. For his services in Palestine Ritchie was mentioned in despatches. Ritchie returned to England, where he was promoted to colonel on 26 August 1939 (with seniority backdated to 1 January) and became a General Staff Officer Grade 1 (GSO1) at the Senior Officers' School at Sheerness, Kent.
After being promoted to the acting rank of brigadier on 22 December 1939, Ritchie became the Brigadier General Staff (BGS) of II Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Alan Brooke, which was serving in France as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Ritchie seems to have impressed Brooke, as on 3 January 1940 the latter wrote in his diary that "Ritchie, my new BGS, seems to be turning out well and should, I think, be good". When the so-called "Phoney War" came to an end in May with the German invasion of western Europe, Ritchie further impressed Brooke by controlling the corps headquarters in a calm and confident manner, thus enabling Brooke to concentrate on running the battle on his corps' front.
After being evacuated to England Ritchie was requested by Brooke when the latter was appointed to command a new "Second BEF". Accompanying Brooke to France, Ritchie was sent back to England again after Brooke realised that further efforts to fight the Germans were pointless and, in his words, "I sent Neil Ritchie off home this evening [16 June] as I did not feel that any useful purpose could be served by retaining him any longer". For his services in France and Belgium, Ritchie was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1940 Birthday Honours on 11 July, and was mentioned in despatches on 26 July.