RALPH MANN
A Profile by Jan Cliffe

Reprinted from the Chipping Norton News.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ralph Mann is a well known and loved figure around our town and nearby villages and those of us who have heard his fascinating and very amusing talks, cannot fail to be affected by his enthusiasm and love for his chosen subjects of history and the church, and anything and everything connected with them.

Ralph was born in Hampstead, London, and grew up in Leatherhead, Surrey. He was conscripted into the Royal Navy for two years before entering Brasenose College, Oxford, where he graduated with a BA in Modern History. After obtaining a Diploma in education, Ralph began his teaching career which took him to many parts of the world, including Barbados and Sierra Leone, where scouting activities also played a large part in his life, and to Kingham Hill School in 1963 – it was here that Ralph started his detailed study of the history of Kingham, publishing several articles. In 1967 he became a founder member of the Chipping Norton Local History Society and in 1973, accepted the post of Head of History at Chipping Norton Comprehensive School. This was where, a year later, Ralph was made aware of a 1763 letter to the Royal Society from a Revd Edward Stone of Chipping Norton who claimed to have revealed the medicinal power of willow bark, which finally resulted, some 130 years later, in the marketing of aspirin by Bayer.

So Ralph decided to undertake a history / science project with some of his pupils ‘a group of fourth-formers followed Edward Stone’s directions and stripped bark off young willow branches, dried it for three weeks, pulverised it with pestle and mortar, and fed the resulting powder to unsuspecting parents on Speech Day’. This is an extract from Ralph Mann’s recently published booklet – ‘Edward Stone and the Discovery of the Aspirin’ which is a comprehensive account of his life, family, work and achievements. The Chipping Norton Society has finally ensured that Edward Stone’s connection with Chipping Norton has received the recognition it deserves with the unveiling of the Blue Plaque in the town.

Ralph took early retirement in 1982 and, after ordination, took up his second career in the Church of England as travelling secretary for an Anglican missionary society and later as priest-in-charge of several nearby Gloucestershire villages. A second retirement took place in 1997, but this did not mean a relaxing time for Ralph, as he became Priest-in-charge of Upton St Leonard’s, Gloucester, a local ecumenical partnership.

Returning to live in Hook Norton, with his wife Elizabeth, in 2000 after his third ‘retirement’, Ralph is currently a member of the Ministry Team for the parish of Chipping Norton and also on the circuit plan for Chipping Norton Methodists. He continues his involvement in local and family history by acting as assistant Archivist for the Chipping Norton Museum and by his membership of various groups and societies, where his enormous local knowledge is invaluable, and very generously shared.