Ralph Raffles

Despite representing Great Britain as a bobsledder at the 1956 Olympic Games and 1957 World Championships, Ralph Raffles was better known in the Manchester and Lancashire areas because of his connections with the Territorial Army and St. John Ambulance Brigade. Raffles attended Manchester University in 1938-39 and went on to become an economic advisor and entrepreneur. He became managing director of the family-owned Manchester clothing manufacturers, E. Raffles & Co. Ltd., and worked for them from 1938-70, and from 1970 he was chairman of the Dene Manor Group of Companies in Manchester.

Raffles served with the King’s Own Royal Regiment (TA) between 1939-54 and eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. With the St. John Ambulance he was commissioner for the Manchester and Salford area and was later the Lancashire County Commissioner. For his services to the St. John Ambulance, Raffles was made an honorary knight in 1975. Four years later he was appointed High Sheriff for the County of Greater Manchester.

Having obtained his pilot’s licence in 1948, Raffles enjoyed flying in his spare time, and was also a keen sailor. He owned a motor cruiser, and was a member of the Royal Ocean Racing Club. Raffles had some influential friends and in 1965 hosted a private luncheon at his Didsbury home. Two of his guests were HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, and the 1936 Olympian, ornithologist, and conservationist, Peter Scott, the son of the famous Antarctic explorer Robert Scott