Major Raffles

Major Ralph Raffles (1920-2008) – some notes

Major Raffles lived for many years in Dene House, Dene Road, and was a familiar figure on the Ford Bank estate often to be seen striding out with his wife, Sally, daughter of Marks and Spencer chairman Edward Sieff. The major was very well known and for that reason a short account is given here of his life and times.

Major Ralph Raffles was for many years one of Manchester’s most flamboyant businessmen and hardest working charity fundraisers; he was a philanthropist, soldier and sportsman, who counted Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and screen heart-throb Douglas Fairbanks Jnr among his personal friends. He experienced a life that read like a Boys Own adventure story. The son of one of the most eminent members of the city’s Jewish community, he was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Manchester University. He was commissioned in the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry and saw active service in World War Two throughout France, Africa, India and Burma. He later went on to serve in the Territorial Army, but was dismissed after bombing his brigadier with flour bombs from a light aircraft on Middleton Sands, Southport.

The tall, athletic major is said to have represented his country at swimming, running, golf, boxing, water polo, rugby, car-rallying, sand yachting, and he was at one time a member of the Olympic bobsleigh team.

He was honoured to become the Deputy Lord Lieutenant and then, in 1979, High Sheriff of Greater Manchester, not to mention being appointed Consul in Manchester in 1966 for the Mediterranean casino-state of Monaco, after being introduced to Prince Rainier by show business friends.

The Major, who was also a magistrate, was known perhaps as much as anything for his tireless work for others. During a period of many years from the early 1960s, he managed to spearhead charity fundraising efforts totalling around £100,000 per year.

His titles included that of County Commissioner of St John Ambulance for Greater Manchester, chairman of the Greater Manchester Youth Association, and chairman of BBC Radio Manchester.

Decorations and recognitions included being a Knight of Grimaldi, a Knight of St John, and Chevalier of eleven French wine orders and four international food societies.

He was well known for his sense of fun, and at one luncheon he hosted at his Didsbury home in aid of the World Wildlife Fund, he arranged to borrow a number of animals from Belle Vue Zoo, including an elephant that caused embarrassment when it charged Prince Philip who was one of the guests. 

Major Raffles died in 2008 aged 87. His widow, Sally, said: ‘He was a larger-than-life character and we had some wonderful times together. He was a Bon Viveur and raconteur, and he liked to live life to the full. He was devoted to his work for charity.”

Was the Major related to Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826)?

It has sometimes been suggested that Major Ralph Raffles was descended from Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, who established Singapore as a trading post in 1819. This, however, is not the case as the following points may show:

• Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles had no direct descendants who survived to adulthood. His only child to survive infancy, Ella Sophia, died at age 19 without progeny.

• The connection between the two men lies in a different branch of the broader Raffles family. Thomas Stamford Raffles had a number of siblings and cousins.

• Major Ralph Raffles was part of a prominent Manchester-based Jewish family, the son of Emanuel and Bertha Raffles.

While they shared the same surname and were probably from the same general family lineage, they were not directly related, that is, Major Ralph Raffles was not a direct linear descendant of Thomas Stamford Raffles; more probably a distant relative.

The Raffles Hotel in Singapore, opened in 1887, was named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the British statesman and diplomat credited with founding modern Singapore as a British trading post in 1819.

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