Ritchie Macdonald was a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 politician of the Labour Party

New Zealand Labour Party

The New Zealand Labour Party is a New Zealand political party. It describes itself as centre-left and socially progressive and has been one of the two primary parties of New Zealand politics since 1935....

.

Personal life

He was born in Scotland, and died in Auckland aged 90. After farming in the Waikato, he worked at the Otahuhu Railway Workshops and became a union secretary.

Political career

He represented the Ponsonby

Ponsonby (New Zealand electorate)

Ponsonby was a parliamentary electorate in Auckland, New Zealand from 1887 to 1890 and from 1946 to 1963.The electorate was represented by two Members of Parliament: Thomas Peacock from 1887 to 1890 and Ritchie Macdonald from 1946 to 1963.The electorate was based on the suburb of...

 electorate from 1946

New Zealand general election, 1946

The 1946 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliament's 28th term. It saw the governing Labour Party re-elected, but by a substantially narrower margin than in the three previous elections...

 to 1963, and then the Grey Lynn

Grey Lynn (New Zealand electorate)

Grey Lynn is a former New Zealand Parliamentary electorate, in the city of Auckland.-Population centres:The electorate is urban, and comprises a suburb in the central part of Auckland.-Election results:...

 electorate from 1963

New Zealand general election, 1963

The 1963 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliament's 34th term. The results were almost identical to those for the previous election, and the governing National Party remained in office....

 to 1969, when he retired. The then Mayor of Auckland

Mayor of Auckland

The Mayor of Auckland is the directly elected head of the Auckland Council, the local government authority for the Auckland region in New Zealand...

 Sir Dove-Myer Robinson

Dove-Myer Robinson

Sir Dove-Myer Robinson was Mayor of Auckland City from 1959 to 1965 and from 1968 to 1980, the longest tenure of any holder of the office....

said about him when he retired: His is the old style of personal assistance. The majority of modern politicians do not know what that means.

Robert Chapman said that the Parliamentary superannuation scheme (introduced in 1946) .... encouraged thoughts of retirement even among Labour's sempiternal back-benchers for, after all, Ritchie Macdonald did retire, not die, in the end..