Frances Ritchie

Frances Dominica Ritchie (born 21 December 1942) OBE, DL, FRCN (Hon) is a British nurse and Anglican religious sister, specializing in palliative care. She founded Helen & Douglas House, two hospices ("respices") for seriously ill young people. Early life Born Frances Dorothy Lyon Ritchie in Inverness, Scotland, in December 1942, she and her mother lived for three years in Greenock, where her grandfather was a solicitor and a Church of Scotland elder. When her father was demobbed the family moved to Richmond and later Roehampton. Her younger brother, David Ritchie, was born when Frances was five years old and he had only one lung. Already knowing she wanted to be a nurse she helped to care for him at home and visited him when he was a patient in the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street. She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College before returning to Great Ormond Street to train as a paediatric nurse. During her training she was seconded to the Middlesex Hospital to do her General Training. Richie in 1966 joined the All Saints Sisters of the Poor, an Anglican religious community. She made vows in 1969 and was made Novice Guardian in 1973. She was elected Mother Superior General in 1977 at the age of 34, a position she held for 12 years.