What I know about my grandfather's early life

There is a strange dearth of information surviving about my grandfather, David Scott Ritchie's early life. I've tried, as described in recent posts, to find clues by researching the lives of his parents, David Scott Ritchie senior and Maude Alice Parker, but nothing has come up so far. No 1911 census, no school admissions records, and no articles from old newspapers.

All I know is that he was born in Paddington and lived for a time in Albert Street. The next evidence I have of his whereabouts comes from his memoir about his travels around the world, in which he tells of his first job out of school. I guess he must have been about 16. He worked as an office boy for Cadbury and Pratt, which had offices in New Bond Street. His job included polishing the great brass door knocker and delivering goods to Buckingham Palace.

In June 1926, he and 3 friends went on holiday abroad. Among them were Dick, from London, and Pat, from Wales. As he described in his memoir, they caught a ferry from Dover to Ostend, Belgium with their bicycles and explored as much as they could on their meagre budget. It was this holiday abroad, he says, that first infected him with the travel bug.

At the time of his Belgium trip, he was working as a "lowly engineer" with an unnamed company. Perhaps he was in training for what was to come, because February 1927 saw him start work with the British Tabulating Machine Company Limited as a service engineer, based in Letchworth in Hertfordshire. He noted in his memoir that the Company had branches in all the dominions except Canada, and including Hong Kong.

Clearly, he was set up for a career full of interesting travel, just as he wished. And his memoir bears this out. Yet I still wonder, what, besides that initial bicycle tour through Belgium, inspired such a thirst for exploration and new experiences? Surely, there must have been someone in his youth, a particular relative or special teacher, who introduced him to the idea of visiting far-off lands?

Image from "Bicycles and supplies" Year: 1918 (1910s) Authors: Boyd, T.W. & Son, Montreal Publisher: Montreal, Desbarats