Guy Ritchie's Grandfather

Hero In Two World Wars

MAJOR STEWART "JACK" RITCHIE, MC was the grandfather of my film director cousin Guy Ritchie, Madonna's husband. In 1927 Jack married Vivian McLaughlin's only daughter, DORIS MARGERETTA (1896-1935). The couple are portrayed on the right.

Jack was born in 1898 to Eva and Robert Ritchie, who was a major in the Royal Artillery. During World War I Jack served in the Seaforth Highlanders like Doris's brothers Archy and Guy. Their uniform is shown below.

A second lieutenant, he was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry under very heavy machine-gun fire while leading a successful attack on the Hindenburg Line in 1918, despite being injured.

After the war Jack served in Egypt and Shanghai. In 1929 he was made a captain. He was mentioned in despatches while in Palestine in 1937. At the outbreak of World War II Jack was promoted to major.

Despite being hopelessly outnumbered by five German tank divisions, the Seaforth Highlanders helped the retreat from Dunkirk by holding on for a month at St Valéry-en-Caux to distract German attention away from the main force.

Jack fell in a hail of bullets on June 12, 1940, the day before the Seaforths' surrender was forced by French troops marching across their front carrying white flags. He is commemorated in Dunkirk Town Cemetery by the Dunkirk Memorial to the more than 4,500 casualties of the British Expeditionary Force who died in the campaign of 1939-40 and who have no known grave.

Doris died in 1935, leaving a son, John Vivian Ritchie, who was brought up by his grandmother Edie McLaughlin. He was at Brightlands before going to Clifton and later being commissioned in the Seaforth Highlanders. After attaining the rank of captain, John became chairman of the board of one of Britain's main advertising agencies, Collet Dickenson Pierce.

Guy Ritchie is John's son by his first marriage, to Amber Parkinson, a model. In 1973 Amber remarried and Guy went to live with his stepfather Sir Michael Leighton, 11th Baronet, at Loton Park, Shropshire, noted for its deer park and its motorsport hillclimb. Loton Park has been in the Leighton family since 1391.

Thirty miles to the south used to be the much humbler McLaughlin estate, The Lydiates, at Woofferton, Shropshire.

                 

© 2006 G. Harry McLaughlin.
Reproduction or transmission, in whole or in part, for other than personal use is prohibited without advance permission from Dr. G. H. McLaughlin.