Henry Peel Ritchie VC (29 January 1876 – 9 December 1958) was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for valour "in the face of the enemy" that can be given to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces.

Ritchie received the first VC awarded to naval personnel during the First World War for his actions during a raid on the German colonial harbour of Dar-es-Salaam in November 1914, which left him seriously wounded.

[3] Henry was educated at George Watson's Boys' College and Blairlodge School before he enrolled on the training ship HMS Prince of Wales at the age of fourteen, in 1890.

Promoted to commander later that year, he managed the ship's gunnery exercises and procedures while Goliath was part of the Channel Fleet stationed in British waters.

It was feared by the Admiralty that the German navy would use its colonial ports to support commerce raiding cruisers such as SMS Emden (1906) or Königsberg, both of which were known to be operating in the Indian Ocean at that time.

[8] This concern was amplified because Königsberg, blockaded in the delta of the Rufiji River,[9] had operated from Dar-es-Salaam in the early months of the war and had sunk the British cruiser HMS Pegasus on a raid from the port.

[9] The Germans had pre-emptively scuttled a blockship in the port's entrance channel, with the intention of preventing Goliath and the other heavy British warships from entering the harbour to shell the undefended city.

The day prior to the raid the decision was taken that, in order to allow the Germans time to evacuate the target ships and minimise casualties, they would be warned of the British intentions.

[citation needed] Due to a breakdown aboard Dupleix before it reached the harbour, Ritchie had to begin his assault with only Helmuth and a handful of small boats and launches from the blockading ships.

There were no signs of life on the target ships as Ritchie's flotilla moved uncontested into the port, and the shoreline was described by officers in the raiding party as "utterly deserted" and "cool and inviting".

It was at this stage, whilst conducting a final inspection, that he made the discovery of a large number of empty ammunition cases and discarded bullets in the holds of the cargo ships.

[4] Two days later, with the wounded hospitalised in Zanzibar, Goliath and Fox returned to Dar-es-Salaam and reduced most of the seafront to rubble, setting fire to several other districts of the town as well.

Although judged fit in late February, Ritchie was assigned light duties and was not returned to Goliath; a disappointment which proved fortunate for him when she was sunk off the Dardanelles in May 1915 by the Turkish destroyer Muavenet with the loss of five hundred lives.