Born in 1888 the son of Charles Jackson LRCP Ed of King's Lynn, he was educated at Haileybury and at St Mary's Hospital. After qualification he held house appointments at St Mary's Hospital and Queen Mary's Hospital for Children, Carshalton. In the war of 1914-18 he served in France with the RAMC

Stanley Ritson began his medical training at King's College, London, where he took his BSc with honours in physiology in 1909 and was senior demonstrator in anatomy. His clinical years were spent at St Thomas's Hospital, from which he took the Conjoint qualification in 1911. He was academically gift