Introduction
General Sir Neil Methuen Ritchie, GBE, KCB, DSO, MC, KStJ (29 July 1897 – 11 December 1983) was a senior British Army officer who saw service during both the First and Second World Wars. He commanded the Eighth Army in the North African Campaign until being dismissed in June 1942. Returning to England, he later commanded the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division and led XII Corps in the campaign in Northwest Europe from June 1944 until May 1945.
Military career
First World War
Following Lancing and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Ritchie's military career started in 1914 when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment). During the First World War he served with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in Belgium and France, where he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1917, and later in the Mesopotamian campaign, in which he won the Military Cross in 1918, for "a fine example of coolness, courage and utter disregard of danger".
Second World War
By the start of the Second World War Ritchie had risen to the rank of brigadier, and was involved in the evacuation of Dunkirk. He held posts on the staffs of Archibald Wavell, Alan Brooke and Claude Auchinleck and was highly regarded by them all. It was Auchinleck who was to give him his highest field command, the British Eighth Army, in November 1941, following the dismissal of Alan Cunningham from that position.
Ritchie had the bad luck to hold his highest command during the earliest phases of the war, when British fortunes were at their lowest ebb. The Eighth Army, fighting in the North African Campaign, was the only British land force engaging the German Army anywhere in the world. After some early successes against the Italians the British were pushed back following the arrival of the Afrika Korps under Erwin Rommel. Ritchie was originally intended as a temporary appointment until a suitable commander could be found, but in fact ended up commanding the Eighth Army for over six months. He was in command of the Eighth Army at the Battle of Gazala in May–June 1942 where Ritchie failed to exercise strong command over the army and the British were heavily defeated, losing the port of Tobruk. He was sacked by Auchinleck on 25 June 1942 prior to the First Battle of El Alamein.
Auchinleck is often seen as having appointed Ritchie, a relatively junior commander, in order to allow him to closely direct the battle himself as Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of Middle East Command. Ritchie was criticised heavily both during and after the war for his failure to stop Rommel. Since then several commentators have come to his defence, most notably Field Marshal Michael Carver.
After being replaced as the Eighth Army commander Ritchie was, from September 1942, appointed to command the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division, trained in mountain warfare, in the United Kingdom, relinquishing command in November 1943. He was later selected by General Bernard Montgomery, commander of the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group, to command XII Corps, part of Lieutenant-General Miles C. Dempsey's British Second Army. He led XII Corps during the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944 and the subsequent campaign in Western Europe, ending in May 1945. The fact that Ritchie regained an active command following his dismissal, unlike his Eighth Army predecessor, Cunningham, reflects the high esteem in which he was held by the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), Alan Brooke.
Post-war
After the war Ritchie remained in the British Army, becoming General Officer Commanding Scottish Command and Governor of Edinburgh Castle in 1945 and General Officer Commanding Far East Land Forces, in 1947.
From December 1948 until retirement from the army he held the ceremonial appointment of Aide-de-Camp General to the King and from September 1950 he was colonel of the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment), his old regiment. Following his retirement he emigrated to Canada where he became a director of the Canadian subsidiary of Tanqueray Gordon & Co. and in 1954 became chairman of the Mercantile & General Reinsurance Co. of Canada. He died at the age of 86 in Toronto.