The Hon. John Collier (1850-1934)

The present picture depicts the wife of Lt. Col. Hon. Harold Ritchie, D.S.O. (1876-1918), the third son of Charles Thomson, 1st Baron Ritchie of Dundee (1838-1906). He was decorated with the Distinguished Service Order for his gallantry and bravery in the First World War during which he suffered wounds from which he died. On 29 January 1907 he married Ella Priestly (d. 1956), daughter of Robert Chambers Priestly, O.B.E., of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The painting must have been executed between 1907 and 1922 when Mrs Ritchie married Surgn. Lt.-Col. Evelyn John Hansler Luxmoore, M.C. (1879-1955), with whom she settled in Kent.