Person

Arnold, Ralph

1906–1970

Times, Sept. 24, 1970: page 12 (novelist, historical writer, chairman of Constable and Co., 1958-1962; died yesterday; b. Oct. 26, 1906). - OCLC, Aug. 1, 2007 (hdg.: Arnold, Ralph, 1906- ; usage: Ralph Arnold; full name: Ralph Crispian Marshall Arnold). http://kentarchaeology.org.uk/research/archaeologia-cantiana/ Kent Archaeological Society is a registered charity number 223382 © 2017 Kent Archaeological Society OBITUARY COLONEL RALPH CRISPIAN MARSHALL ARNOLD The death of Ralph Arnold on 23rd September, 1970, has broken a unique family connection with the Society, a connection which has existed since George Mathews Arnold was elected a member of Council at the Society's foundation in 1858. He was born at Meopham in 1906 and, after Loretto and Trinity College, Oxford, joined in 1929 the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Seven years later, he entered Constable's where his acumen, his flair for recognizing manuscripts of promise and his plain common sense led to a brilliant success as a publisher. His wartime career at home and abroad was full and distinguished, and it was probably his service in the East which caused a slow paralysis of his legs, eventually resulting in loss of movement in his later years. As a writer of light fiction Ralph Arnold had humour and taste, a sense of narrative and a gift for entertainment. Whether he was writing a comedy, a detective novel or a book of adventure, his touch was sure and workmanlike. His work as a local historian of Kent began i n 1947 with The Hundred of Hoo; it was followed in 1949 by A Yeoman of Kent based on his own village of Cobham, in 1961 by The Whiston Affair, a delightful account of' the scandalous happenings in Rochester which had inspired Trollope to write The Warden, and in 1963 by Orange Street and Brick- hole Lane, an autobiography. As a literary historian, Arnold also looked far beyond his native county