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Major A N B Ritchie DL
Late Scots Guards
by Major General Sir John Swinton KCVO OBE DL
formerly Scots Guards
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Alastair Ritchie left Harrow in 1939 for Corpus Christi College Cambridge, but the war caught up with him after one year and in 1940 he found himself in a Brigade Squad at Caterham. Sandhurst, then called 162(RMC) Officer Cadet Training Unit, followed until commissioning into the Scots Guards in November 1940.
After six months with the Training Battalion at Pirbright, Alastair was posted to the Holding Battalion at HM Tower of London where life was fairly hectic. The Blitz was at its height, especially in the East End and the Docks; RAF Fighter Command at Stanmore required guarding, as did the Enfield Small Arms Factory and other vulnerable points, while all the time the usual Royal Duties needed to be found. Alastair became Parade Adjutant and eventually Adjutant, an appointment he was to hold frequently in the years to come.
In November 1941 he was posted to the 4th Battalion, then stationed at Wansted. As part of the Guards Armoured Division the battalion was at this time taken up with training. Alastair joined them as a platoon commander in W Company but soon became Adjutant for the battalion’s last nine months. For a short period he was employed on the staff of the Guards Armoured Division, and it was in this capacity that, a day or so after D-Day, Alastair found himself in a field in Essex, alongside several other divisional radio vehicles, to go through a programme of realistically timed wireless traffic designed to deceive the enemy into thinking that the Guards Armoured Division was poised for the main assault on France via the Pas de Calais, whereas in reality the Division was assembled near Eastbourne ready to embark for Normandy.
With the Guards Armoured Division Alastair saw active service across Northern France as well as taking part in the longest daily advance of the War, of over a hundred miles, to liberate Brussels. Liberating the City also involved liberating a main stock of captured wine and other ‘good things’. Alastair was given the job of organizing the unique distribution of a bottle of champagne and a bottle of brandy between three men. The problem of storing these bottles in a tank was soon overcome when it was discovered that a champagne bottle fitted perfectly into a 75mm shell clip. Ammunition and champagne were soon switched.
In October 1944 Alastair joined X Company Scots Guards, permanently attached to 1st Welsh Guards, as Second in Command. He was temporarily in command during the battle of Bonninghardt on 6th March 1945 when he was slightly wounded. Later in March 1945 the Company was transferred to, and split up throughout, the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards. Alastair was fiercely loyal to X Company which had gained a considerable reputation within the Welsh Guards and he was very annoyed that this battle hardened company was not kept together.
For the last few months of the War, during which the battalion suffered many casualties, especially amongst the officers, Alastair was used to fill gaps and found himself commanding three different companies up until VE Day when he became Adjutant, until March 1946, firstly in Hamburg and later in Wipperfurth.
His uncle, General Sir Neil Ritchie, now enters Alastair’s story, when Alastair was taken on as ADC to his uncle who was Army Commander in Scotland and, following that, as MA when Sir Neil became C- in-C, Far East Land Forces in Singapore. Also staying at Flagstaff House in Singapore, was Sir Neil’s Canadian niece-by-marriage, Isobel Sinclair and, as future events will show, Alastair and she obviously saw a lot of each other.
Alastair returned home in May 1948 to join the 2nd Battalion. Hardly had he gained his bearings, commanding F Company, than the battalion was warned for service with 2nd Guards Brigade in Malaya. On 4th September they marched out of Chelsea Barracks, behind the Regimental Band for Waterloo Station and entrainment for Southampton and embarkation in HMT Empire Trooper. 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards were also embarked on this ancient troopship, as were a number of wives of officers serving in the Far East. A firm disciplinarian was required as Ship’s Adjutant. Who better than Alastair?
He remained as Battalion Adjutant until relieved in March 1949, by which time the stench of the open cast coalmine of Batu Arang, set on fire by the Japanese four years earlier, was only a little diminished. Alastair was pleased to get away to the different smells of the jungle. He spent the next six months commanding Right Flank, based in Kuala Kubu Bahru, before returning to England as Chief Instructor to the 1st Battalion at Pirbright, where he remained until departing for a year at the Canadian Staff College at Kingston, Ontario. By a remarkable piece of good luck (or was it good management?) Kingston happened to be Isobel Sinclair’s home town. They were married there in 1951 and enjoyed the happiest of marriages for the next 63 years.
They remained in Canada until May1954, during which time Alastair was employed as a staff officer in Halifax, Nova Scotia and as Assistant Military Attaché in Ottawa. On his return to Britain, 1SG was in the Canal Zone of Egypt and Alastair joined them there, firstly as a Company Commander and then as Battalion Second in Command.
When the battalion had returned to Wellington Barracks and Public Duties, Alastair, in August 1955, took the Regimental Band and Pipes and Drums of the Battalion on a three month goodwill tour of North America; the first of many in the years to come. On the tour Alastair was obliged to take in hand a17 year old piper, to prevent him from getting in to any trouble. This young piper was to become the legendary Pipe Major Angus MacDonald and years later he was to write a pipe tune, ‘Major Alastair Ritchie’, and present it to Alastair as a thank you for his help on that tour. The tune is still a staple in the repertoire of the pipe band of Alastair’s home town, Callander.
Alastair’s last job in the Army was two years at HQ London District, as DAAG, after which he retired to become a member of the Stock Exchange, a change of scene which lasted for twenty two years.
It also meant a change from urban to rural life, as they left their house in the stockbroker belt and moved to a house, and farm, outside Callander. The commute to London was insufficient to use up all of Alastair’s prodigious energy and so he turned to politics, being elected Councillor for thirteen and a half years for the Highland Ward of Stirling District Council. He also became Opposition Finance Spokesman and, in due course, a founder member of the Callander Community Council. During eight years of this busy period he managed to achieve a BA in History, Music and Politics at Stirling University.
He also found time to parade each year in Edinburgh as a member of The Queen’s Bodyguard for Scotland (The Royal Company of Archers) and to serve as Chairman, then President of the Scots Guards Association Glasgow Branch. If that was not enough, on top of keeping a large garden immaculate, he served for three years as Adjutant of the 3rd (TA) Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
Alastair is survived through this hectic life by his devoted wife Isobel and their children, Colin and Jane, to all of whom go our heartfelt sympathy.
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