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Charles Stewart Almon Ritchie, CC (September 23, 1906 – June 7, 1995) was a Canadian diplomat and diarist.

Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Ritchie was educated at the University of King's College, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Pembroke College, Oxford, Harvard University, and École Libre des Sciences Politiques. He joined the Department of External Affairs in 1934 eventually becoming Canada's ambassador to West Germany (1954–1958), Permanent Representative to the United Nations (1958–1962), ambassador to the United States during the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson (1962–1966), ambassador to the North Atlantic Council (1966–1967) and from 1967 to 1971 was Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom in London.

While Ritchie's career as a diplomat marked him as an important person in the history of Canadian foreign relations, he became famous through the publication of his diaries, first The Siren Years, and then three follow-ups. The diaries document both his diplomatic career and his private life, including the beginning of his long love affair with the Anglo-Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen, which began in 1941 when he was still single and she married, survived through his marriage in 1948 and long periods of separation, lasting until Bowen's death in 1973.

In 1969 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada "for services in the field of diplomacy". He received honorary doctorates from Trent University (1976), York University (1992) and Carleton University (1992).

Ritchie came from a prominent family in Nova Scotia. His brother, Roland Ritchie, continuing a family tradition in the law, was a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Selected works

• The Siren Years: A Canadian Diplomat Abroad 1937–1945 Toronto: Macmillan, 1974. ISBN 0-7710-7526-X, winner of the 1974 Governor General's Award for non-fiction.
• An Appetite for Life: The Education of a Young Diarist, 1924–1927 Toronto: Macmillan, 1977. ISBN 0-7705-1573-8.
• Diplomatic Passport Toronto: Macmillan, 1981. ISBN 0-7715-9587-5.
• Storm Signals Toronto: Macmillan, 1983. ISBN 0-7715-9782-7.

References

1. ^ Victoria Glendinning, ed. (2008). Love's Civil War: Elizabeth Bowen and Charles Ritchie. McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 978-0771035661.
2. W.H. New, ed. (2002). Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0802007619.
3. Order of Canada citation
4. "Trent Honorary Graduates And Eminent Service Award Winners". Trent University. Archived from the original on 2012-06-29.
5. "Honorary Degrees Recipients". York University.
6. "Honorary Degrees Awarded Since 1954". Carleton University. Archived from the original on 2013-11-10. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
7. "Roland A. Ritchie". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on September 13, 2012.

External links

Archives at
Location Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library  Source Charles Ritchie papers
How to use archival material

• Charles Stewart Almon Ritchie at The Canadian Encyclopedia by Norman Hillmer
• Heads of Post List

• 1906 births
• 1995 deaths
• Ambassadors of Canada to the United States
• Ambassadors of Canada to West Germany
• High commissioners of Canada to the United Kingdom
• Permanent Representatives of Canada to the United Nations
• Permanent Representatives of Canada to NATO
• University of King's College alumni
• Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford
• Harvard University alumni
• Canadian Anglicans
• Canadian diarists
• Canadian people of Scottish descent
• Companions of the Order of Canada
• Writers from Halifax, Nova Scotia
• Governor General's Award–winning non-fiction writers
• 20th-century diarists