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Roland Almon Ritchie (June 19, 1910 - June 5, 1988) was a Canadian lawyer and Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the son of William Bruce Almon Ritchie and Lillian Stewart, he received a B.A. from the University of King's College in 1930, a B.A. in 1932 from Oxford University, and was called to the Nova Scotia Bar in 1934. Ritchie was a scion of prominent families--the Almons, Ritchies, and Stewarts were all major families in Nova Scotia--and his brother, Charles Ritchie was an important Canadian diplomat and diarist.
His law practice was interrupted by World War II, where he served as Assistant Deputy Judge Advocate with the Third Canadian Division from 1941 to 1944. After the war he helped found the law firm, Daley, Phinney & Ritchie. He also was a lecturer on insurance law at Dalhousie University.
In 1959, without any previous judicial experience, Ritchie was appointed by the Diefenbaker government to replace Ivan Rand on the Supreme Court of Canada.
He served on the Court until his retirement in 1984. In 1985 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. From 1974 to 1988, he was the Chancellor of the University of King's College.
Ritchie's judgements were typically conservative, which often put him on side with Martland and Judson.
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