2ND LIEUTENANT LAURIE RITCHIE ARMITAGE 9TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. ILKLEY PALS.


2ND LIEUTENANT LAURIE RITCHIE ARMITAGE 9TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. ILKLEY PALS. DIED OF WOUNDS 25TH NOVEMBER 1916.




Laurie Ritchie Armitage (known as Ritchie) was born at 1 Grosvenor Terrace, Otley in 1893, the youngest of three sons born to Henry Armitage, a wholesale grocer, and his wife Sara.
Educated locally, after leaving school he began work with the United Counties Bank at their branch on Brook Street, Ilkley. A noted hockey player with the Ben Rhydding Club he was talented enough to play for Yorkshire.


It is not known if Ritchie lived in Ilkley, but he was certainly at the recruiting rally held in the Kings Hall on 31st August 1914 and is reputed to have been the first man to climb the stage to enlist in what became the Ilkley Pals Company (9th Duke of Wellingtons Regiment).


Ritchie's leadership qualities were soon recognised and after early promotion to sergeant he was commissioned as an officer on the 12th February 1915. Officer training took him away from the battalion but in April 1916 he was able to rejoin his comrades in France with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.


The 9th Dukes were stationed on the Somme Front throughout the summer and autumn of 1916 and had been heavily involved in the fighting. It was during this time that Ritchie was recommended for the award of a Military Cross for his actions in rescuing a wounded fellow officer in no-mans land. 


On 31st October, after a period of rest, the battalion was moved back into the front line near to Trones Wood. As they took up their new position Ritchie received a head wound from a bullet fired by a German sniper. Seriously wounded he was moved away from the front line and a few days later arrived at the Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich. There he was treated, by amongst others, the eminent surgeon Sir Frederick Treeves, but it was to no avail and he died on 25th November aged 24 years

.
Ritchie's body was brought back to his native Yorkshire and laid to rest in the cemetery in Otley. Ritchie is remembered on the war memorials in Harrogate, where his parents lived, and in Ilkley. His father also had a stained glass window installed at Trinity Methodist Church, Harrogate, where he was a preacher.

                                                                   Otley Cemetery


Trinity Methodist Church Harrogate

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