The Ritchies in India

William Ritchie (1817-1862) was the Advocate-General of Bengal from 1855 to 1862. Ritchie's maternal family, the Thackerays, had a long association with India. His father, John Ritchie, was the director of a bank that failed in November 1841, causing the Ritchie family to flee to the continent to escape creditors. Unable to maintain the expense of reading for the Bar in London, William instead looked to the Indian Bar, where he could earn an immediate income to support his parents.

William quickly built a name at the bar in Calcutta. He was appointed as the Advocate-General of Bengal, also as the second Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta in 1859, and Legislative Member of the Council of the Governor-General of India. He held these offices until his death in Calcutta on 22 March 1862.

His numerous correspondence with his family is reproduced in this book. Interesting facets of his life in India are revealed through these letters, which also bring out his remarkable power of writing. There is an interesting correspondence about his meeting with Dwarkanath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore's father, and other well-known luminaries of Calcutta. Vivid details are there about the climate of Calcutta, for instance, about the violent storms which he encountered there, his various cases, his visits to nearby towns, his happiness at the abolition of slavery, his deep nostalgia for the streets of London, his profound sorrow at the passing away of his father, his travels to Lucknow, Meerut, the sighting of the whole range of the Himalaya, the picturesque ghats of Benares, his travel to Sri Lanka (at the time a colony of the English) and his stay there at Colombo, Kandy, and Neuralia and his adventures there.