General Sir Neil Methuen Ritchie, (29 July 1897 – 11 December 1983) was a British Army officer who saw service during both the world wars. He is most notable during the Second World War for commanding the British Eighth Army in the North African campaign from November 1941 until being dismissed in June 1942. Despite this, his career did not end. Ritchie later commanded XII Corps throughout the campaign in Northwest Europe, from June 1944 until Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) in May 1945. Origins Born near the Essequibo River in British Guiana on 29 July 1897, he was the second son of a Scottish planter, Dugald MacDougall Ritchie (1861-1925), and his wife Anna Catherine Leggatt (1860-1946), daughter of an English farmer. His elder brother was Alan MacDougall Ritchie, later a brigadier in the British Army, and he had two sisters. Early life and First World War After growing up in Malaya, he went to England and was educated at Lancing College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Four months after the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, he passed out from Sandhurst on 16 December 1914, when he was, at the age of just 17, commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders). Among his fellow graduates was another future general, John Grover. As he was too young, Ritchie was not sent overseas until after his 18th birthday in July 1915. He was promoted to lieutenant on 2 October, and served initially with the 1st Battalion, Black Watch, then part of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division and one of the two Regular Army battalions in the regiment, in the trenches of the Western Front. Ritchie was wounded during the Battle of Loos. After recovering from his injuries he was promoted to the temporary rank of captain on 2 March 1916, and made an acting captain on 22 April. He later served with the 2nd Battalion (the other Regular Army battalion in the regiment) which was part of the 21st (Bareilly) Brigade in the 7th (Meerut) Division , a British Indian Army division, in the Middle East. He served during the Sinai and Palestine campaign and the Mesopotamian campaign, including in the fall of Baghdad in March 1917. On 5 January 1917 he became his battalion's adjutant. He won the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) on 25 August 1917 and, having been