Robert Peel Ritchie

Robert Peel Ritchie was born in Edinburgh in 1835, the son of a civil engineer and sometime city magistrate. He received his MD from Edinburgh in 1856 and, after graduation, worked as Resident Physician at Bethnal House Asylum, London. Ritchie returned to Edinburgh in 1861 and worked as Obstetrical Physician at the Old Town Dispensary, eventually joining its board of management. He was elected Physician, and later Consulting Physician, to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. An active member of the College, he served as Treasurer from 1882 to 1887 and as President from 1887 to 1889. In 1899 he published 'The Early Days of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh'. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a member of numerous scientific societies and clubs. He died in Edinburgh in 1902.