Joseph Ritchie

Doctor Joseph Ritchie (c 1788 - November 20, 1819) was an English surgeon, explorer and naturalist.

In 1818 Ritchie was sent with George Francis Lyon by Sir John Barrow to find the course of the River Niger and the location of Timbuktu. The expedition was underfunded, lacked support and because the ideas of Barrow departed from Tripoli and thus had to cross the Sahara as part of their journey. A year later, due to much officialdom they had only got as far as Murzuk, the capital of Fezzan, where they both fell ill. Ritchie never recovered and died there.