1954 Dr John McGregor Ritchie OBE
From Lacey Green History
Research by Laurence Rostron
Dr John McGregor Ritchie OBE who lived in retirement in Grace Cottage 1954 to 1963
John McGregor Ritchie was born in Edinburgh on the 15th May 1879. He was the youngest of 4 children born to John McGregor Ritchie senior, a master joiner, and his wife Alice.
The 1891 Census shows him aged 11 as a scholar in Edinburgh and the 1901 Census shows him at the age of 21 still living at home but as a student at Edinburgh University reading the Arts. In 1906 John McGregor Ritchie married Helen Allan in Edmonton, London.
After their marriage it is assumed that John McGregor Ritchie became a school teacher because he next appears in the 1911 Census living in Old Trafford, Manchester where his occupation is listed as Schoolmaster, Henshaws Blind Asylum. This was clearly the start of a very long career in caring for the blind.
He soon moved to London and joined the Royal London Society for the Blind and after 35 years of service, during which he became the Society’s Superintendent, he finally retired in 1950. He was living at Dorton House near Aylesbury at the time as the RLSB had moved there from London at the start of the war.
“1950 – The Council accepted with very great regret the resignation of the Society’s Honorary Superintendent and Secretary, Dr JM Ritchie OBE, MA. During the 35 years of Dr Ritchie’s brilliant leadership, the scope of the Society’s work developed to an extent unparalleled in its long history.”
Extract from RLSB History Timeline
A photograph of Dr Ritchie in his earlier years – RLSB
It is not known where he lived during the period from 1950, when he resigned from the Society, until he moved into Grace Cottage in 1954 but, sadly, in view of the fact that he had devoted his life to the blind, it is thought that for most of this period he was blind himself. His wife had died in 1941 and it is thought therefore, that the RLSB purchased Grace Cottage and provided him with a driver for his retirement. He continued to live in Grace Cottage with his housekeeper and driver, Rosamund Dewdney, until he died on the 27th July 1963.
So ended a truly remarkable life. In May of the following year, the Royal London Society for the Blind sold the property.