Ralph Gerald Ritson

Captain Vivian Noverre Lockett, Monte Waterbury, Captain Ralph Gerald Ritson, and Lawrence Waterbury II circa 1910-1915

Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Gerald Ritson (1880 – October 25, 1966) was a member of the Inniskilling Dragoons and a champion polo player with a ten-goal handicap.[1][2]

Biography

He was born in 1880 in England to Utrick Alexander Ritson and Annie Ridley. In 1911 he won the Roehampton Trophy with fellow players Jean de Madre and Leslie St. Clair Cheape. That same year he won the King's Coronation Cup with Leslie St. Clair Cheape, Major Shah Mirza Beg of the Hyderabad Lancers, and Vivian Noverre Lockett.[3]

He captained the British polo team in the 1913 International Polo Cup at the Meadowbrook Polo Club and his teammates were Leslie St. Clair Cheape and Vivian Noverre Lockett.[2][4]

On June 1, 1926 he married Kitty Edith Blanche Ogilvy.[5]

He died on October 25, 1966 in South Africa where he was working for Wiggins Teape.[6][7]

References

  1. ↑ Horace A. Laffaye. The Evolution of Polo. p. 64. The first 10-goalers were ... Vyvyan (known as Vivian) Noverre Lockett, 17th Lancers, and Capt. Ralph Gerald Ritson, Inniskilling Dragoons. Capt.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Polo in the United States. Arcadia Publishing. 2011. p. 67. Ralph Gerald Ritson was chosen to be the team leader. Lt. Col. Edward D. Miller (polo), the guru of British polo, accompanied the team as manager.
  3. ↑ "Polo". Britannica Yearbook. 1912. Retrieved 2012-11-19. The King's Coronation Cup went to a powerful side representing the Indian Polo Association (Captains L. St. C. Cheape, Shah Mirza Beg, R. G. Ritson and V. N. Lockett)
  4. ↑ "Capt. Ritson Not To Play In Cup Polo. Leader of British Team Last June Will Not Come to America Next Year". New York Times. December 18, 1913. Retrieved 2011-04-08. Capt. R.G. Ritson of the Sixth Innis-killing Dragoons, who was the leader of the England polo team last year in its attempt to lift the international cup, will probably be an absentee from the faces which will be arrayed against the pick of America in next year's matches at Westbury, for which England has recently challenged.
  5. ↑ "Kitty Edith Blanche Ogilvy". New York Times. Retrieved 2012-11-19. ... secondly [married] Ralph Gerald Ritson, late Inniskllling Dragoons. ...
  6. ↑ "Ralph Gerald Ritson Dies". Paper maker and British paper trade journal. 1966. Retrieved 2012-11-19. Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Gerald Ritson has died at the age of 86 in South Africa, where for the most part he had retired after his distinguished service with Messrs. Wiggins Teape, of which he was a director.
  7. ↑ "Ralph Gerald Ritson, 86". Pulp & Paper International. 1967. Retrieved 2012-11-19. Ralph Gerald Ritson, 86, for many years director of Wiggins Teape, UK. He had been chairman of the Scottish District of BP&BMA 1947-1950 and a member of the Council of the Papermakers Assoc. 1940-1950. ...