public as well as the government, and he was made an officier d'académie by the French government in 1891. Next year he received the C.I.E. In 1898 he was acting financial secretary to the government of India. In 1899 he was appointed census commissioner, and chapter vi. on Ethnology and Caste in vol. i. of the 'Imperial Gazetteer of India' (1907) is an epitome of his monumental contribution to the 'Census Report,' 1901, on that subject. From the date of his report a new chapter was opened in Indian official literature, and the census volumes, until then regarded as dull, were at once read and reviewed in every country. In 1901 he became director of ethnography for India, and next year secretary to the government of India in the home department, acting for a short time as member of council. He had served as member and secretary to the police commission in 1890, and his special knowledge was of great value to Lord Curzon in many administrative matters, including the partition of Bengal. When the administrative reforms suggested by Lord Morley came under the consideration of Lord Minto in 1908–9, Risley proved an admirable instrument for the work in hand. With clear judgment and rare facility of expression Risley excavated from an enormous mass of official documents the main issues on reform, enlarged councils, and administrative changes (cf. Blue Books, 1909), and he submitted the needful points to Lord Minto's council. Although every provincial government held different views, Risley directed the members of council to conclusions and compromises, and finally put their orders into resolutions, regulations, and laws. He was created C.S.I, in 1904 and K.C.I.E. in 1907. In 1910 he returned to England to fill the post of secretary in the public and judicial department at the India office in London.
Despite the pressure of his secretariat labours Risley continued to pursue his study of ethnography and anthropometry. He became president of the Royal Anthropological Institute in Jan. 1910. On the processes by which non- Aryan tribes are admitted into Hinduism he was recognised to be the greatest living authority, and he established by anthropometric investigation the fact that the Kolarians south of Bengal are not to be distinguished from their Dravidian neighbours. He strongly advocated the addition of ethnology to the necessary training of civilians for work in India. His chief contributions to literature, besides those already cited, were, ’Anthropometric Data' (2 vols. Calcutta, 1891) and 'Ethnographical Glossary' (2 vols. Calcutta, 1892); the 'Gazetteer of Sikhim: Introductory Chapter' (Calcutta, 1894); and 'The People of India' (Calcutta, 1908). His work completely revolutionised the native Indian view of ethnological inquiry. 'Twenty years ago in his own province of Bengal inquiries into the origin of caste and custom by men of alien creed were resented. Ethnology is now one of the recognised objects of investigation of the Vangiya Sahitya Parisat' (Mr. J. D. Anderson in Roy. Anthropol. Record, Jan. 1912).
Risley died at Wimbledon on 30 Sept. 1911, pursuing almost to the last his favourite studies despite distressing illness. He was buried in the Wimbledon cemetery.
He married at Simla, on 17 June 1879, Elsie Julie, daughter of Friedrich Oppermann of Hanover, who survived him with a son. Crescent Gebhard, born in Oct. 1881, captain of the 18th King George's Own Lancers, Indian, army, and a daughter, Sylvia.
[The Times, 3 Oct. 1911; Man, a monthly record of anthropological science, Jan. 1912; Buckland's Indian Biography; Parliamentary Blue Books, and official reports; Records of Buckinghamshire, vol. iii. no. 6.]
RITCHIE, CHARLES THOMSON, first Baron Ritchie of Dundee (1838–1906), statesman, born on 19 Nov. 1838 at Hawkhill, Dundee, was the fourth son in a family of six sons and two daughters of William Ritchie, a landed proprietor, of Rockhill, Broughty Ferry, Forfarshire, head of the firm of William Ritchie & Son of London and Dundee, East India merchants, jute spinners, and manufacturers. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of James Thomson. The Ritchies had been connected with the burgh of Dundee for two centuries. The second son, James Thomson Ritchie (1835–1912), became an alderman of the City of London, served as sheriff in 1896–7, was lord mayor from 1903 to 1904, and was created a baronet on 15 Dec. 1903. The father designed his sons for a business life, and Charles, after education at the City of London School, which he entered in September 1849 and left in July 1853, passed immediately into the London office of his father's firm. In 1858, while still under twenty, he married Margaret, a daughter of Thomas Ower of Perth. For the next sixteen years (1858–74) Ritchie's time was almost wholly absorbed by the business of the firm, of which he soon became a partner. His offices lay in the
