He was the son of William Ritson (1811-1893) a stonemason who rose to be a civil engineering contractor, building docks and railways. He began work as a contractor. He built the Hexham-Allendale Railway and worked with his uncle on the Thames Embankment. He inherited and acquired a number of coal mines and was a director of the Newcastle and Gatehead Gas and Water Companies, vice-chairman of the Northern Counties Conservative Newspaper Co. Ltd. He sat on Newcastle Town Council from 1878 and Durham County Council from 1882 and was a magistrate. He attended Jesmond WM chapel and in 1891 erected the obelisk on the Quayside at Newcastle commemorating Wesley's first visit to the town.