Career
As a young man, Ralph was a miner but he played for his local junior club Newbiggin Athletic, in the Wansbeck League. In 1913 he was playing for Choppington Alliance when he was spotted by Newcastle United and was transferred to them for a fee of £40 on 30 October 1913. Ralph never played for the first XI at Newcastle United, when in May 1914 Huddersfield Town paid a £100 fee for his signature.
The following season, 1914-1915, Ralph was Huddersfield Town leading goal scorer with 16 goals in 28 appearances.
As with many football players during World War I, he signed up to serve and he did so with the Royal Field Artillery. The season after World War I, 1919-1920, he was part of the Huddersfield Town side which gained promotion from Division 2 of the Football League appearing 13 times and scoring 3 goals.
In November 1920, Ralph was transferred to Exeter City and played in 19 matches, scoring 4 goals, for the rest of the 1920-1921 season. During August 1921, he was transferred to Brentford to play in the 1921-1922 season, appearing in 8 matches and scoring just one goal.
This was to be his last season in the Football League.
He then appeared for Sittingbourne in the Kent League for a few seasons before moving back to the North East to play for Blyth Spartans in the North Eastern League. In October 1927, Ralph and his family emigrated to Australia to build a new life. During his service with the Australian Army Service Corps in Malaya, he was captured by the Imperial Japanese Army and transferred to the Sandakan Prisoner of War Camp in North Borneo and interred as a Prisoner Of War. He died on 21 November 1944 and is buried at the Labuan War Cemetery in Malaysia.
