Ritchie was a career soldier who joined the Scottish Rifles whilst underage in 1908; he was no stranger to the crucible of action, having landed in France in August 1914 and had shared in the Battle for Mons – by the end of the Great War he had been wounded in action on no less than five occasions and also added the Croix de Guerre to his laurels.
The VC was exceptional as it is one of just nine awards for the First Day of the Battle of the Somme, 1st July 1916. That action was the most costly in the history of the British Army and any medallic awards for the action are always highly prized by collectors for the sheer scale, ferocity and human cost of the action