Ralph Wedgwood

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Sir Ralph Lewis Wedgwood, 1st Baronet CB CMG (2 March 1874 - 5 September 1956) was the Chief Officer of the London & North Eastern Railway for 16 years from its inauguration in 1923. Also chairman of the wartime Railway Executive Committee from September 1939 to August 1941. Knighted in 1924 and created a baronet in 1942.

Wedgwood was the son of Clement Wedgwood and his wife Emily, daughter of the engineer James Meadows Rendel. He was a great-great-grandson of the distinguished potter Josiah Wedgwood. His elder brother was Josiah Wedgwood, 1st Baron Wedgwood. He married Iris Veronica Pawson, daughter of Albert Henry Pawson on 24 October 1906 at St. Margaret's, Westminster. They had two children who survived to adulthood; John Hamilton Wedgwood (1907-1989), second baronet and Cicely Veronica Wedgwood (1910-1997), historian. A second son, Ralph Pawson Wedgwood was born and died in 1909.

He was educated at Clifton College and Trinity College, Cambridge.

An A4 Class locomotive, 4469 Sir Ralph Wedgwood, was named after him but it was destroyed by bombing during World War 2. His name was later given to A4 Class 4466.