Charles Ritchie, 1st Baron Ritchie of Dundee

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Charles Thomson Ritchie, 1st Baron Ritchie of Dundee (19 November 1838–9 January 1906), was a British politician.

He was born at Dundee, Scotland and educated at the City of London School. He went into business, and in 1874 was returned to parliament as Conservative member for the Tower Hamlets. In 1885 he was made secretary to the Admiralty, and from 1886 to 1892 was President of the Local Government Board in Lord Salisbury's second administration, sitting as member for St Georges in the East. He was responsible for the Local Government Act of 1888, instituting county councils; and a large section of the Conservative party always owed him a grudge for having originated the London County Council.

In Lord Salisbury's later ministries, as member for Croydon (1895–1906), he was President of the Board of Trade (1895–1900) and Home Secretary (1900–1902); and when Sir Michael Hicks-Beach retired in 1902, he became Chancellor of the Exchequer in Mr Balfour's cabinet. Though in his earlier years he had been a fair-trader, he was strongly opposed to Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain's movement for a preferential tariff, and he resigned office in September 1903.

On 22 December 1905, he was created a peer as Baron Ritchie of Dundee, but he was in ill-health, and he died at Biarritz in January 1906.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Acton Smee Ayrton	Member of Parliament for Tower Hamlets 1874–1885	Succeeded by Seat abolished
Preceded by New seat	Member of Parliament for St Georges, Tower Hamlets 1885–1892	Succeeded by John Benn
Preceded by Sidney Herbert	Member of Parliament for Croydon 1895–1905	Succeeded by Hugh Oakeley Arnold-Forster
Political offices
Preceded by James Stansfeld	President of the Local Government Board 1886–1892	Succeeded by Henry Hartley Fowler
Preceded by James Bryce	President of the Board of Trade 1895–1900	Succeeded by Gerald Balfour
Preceded by Sir Matthew Ridley	Home Secretary 1900–1902	Succeeded by Aretas Akers-Douglas
Preceded by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Bt	Chancellor of the Exchequer 1902–1903	Succeeded by Austen Chamberlain
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by New creation	Baron Ritchie of Dundee 1905–1906	Succeeded by Charles Ritchie

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.