| Creator: |
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| Date of birth: |
1895 |
| Date of death: |
1974 |
| Place of death: |
Melbourne |
| Biography: |
Alan Blackwood Ritchie was born in 1895, the second son of Robert Blackwood Ritchie (R.B. Ritchie) and Lillian Ross. After the death of his mother in 1897, his father moved Alan and his elder brother Robin to Scotland to be raised by their grandmother Janet. Alan served in the Royal and Australian Navies during World War 1 – a conflict in which his brother Robin was killed fighting in.
After the war, Alan studied economics at the University of Cambridge. After working for a shipping company in London, he returned to Australia in 1924 and eventually took control of the family pastoral company R.B. Ritchie & Son. Pty. Ltd and its’ Blackwood property. He gained a reputation as an innovative grazier who implemented revolutionary farming practices.
Alan Ritchie has also made a major contribution to Australian public policy through his association and connection to some influential business and public figures. One of which was R.G. Casey later to become a Federal Government Minister and Australian Governor General. Another was Sir Douglas Copland – the first Dean of the Faculty of Commerce at the University of Melbourne. Through his association with Copland, he persuaded his father R.B. Ritchie to make a huge endowment to the University of Melbourne in order to establish the Ritchie Chair of Economic Research. Alan also served on the selection panel for the election of the Chair. Several leading economists were said to have visited and stayed with Alan at the Blackwood property over the years. He also wrote a series of questions which the commission of an enquiry into the Australian tariff would have to deal with and at one time wrote speeches for Prime Minister Stanley M. Bruce. He also served on the Victorian State Executive of the C.S.I.R.O.
Alan was recalled to the Royal Navy during World War 2 and served in Liverpool and Birkenhead. He was however sent back to Australia as it was thought he could contribute more to the war effort by growing wool and grain.
Alan and his Canadian wife Margaret Witcomb had four children – Robin, Judith, Blyth and Linton between 1937 and 1946. He retired from Blackwood to Melbourne in 1965 and died in 1974. |
| Activities/Occupation: |
Graziers |
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