Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1945-48 (Lt. M. B. Ranson, R. Sigs.) in named card box of issue, a slightly later issue, good very fine £100-£140

Michael Bohun Ranson was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford. He was called up and joined the Royal Signals in 1942 and was commissioned in April 1944. Ranson served in the Middle East, including Palestine with HQ Palestine Command Signals, November 1945-November 1946. After demobilisation, he went to Keble College, Oxford and read English Literature and stayed on for the Diploma of Education, 1951. He was a member of the College Athletics Team, 1948-51 and its President, 1949-51. Appointed Assistant Master at St. John’s School, Billericay, 1951-54; he then moved to Nigeria where he was Head of the English Department at Ibadan Grammar School, 1955-64 and Lecturer at the College of Nigeria.

Ranson was Treasurer of the Western Nigeria Amateur Athletics Association, 1955-62 and coach to the Nigerian Athletics Team at the 1958 Commonwealth Games at Cardiff. Returning to the UK in 1964, he was appointed Assistant Master at the City of Norwich School, 1962-86 and Chairman of the Norfolk Amateur Athletics Association, 1965-72. In 2006 he retired from the Norwich Diocesan Synod having completed 26 years as a member, and having served on the Bishop’s Council and Board of Finance. Closely associated with the Archdeacon of Norfolk for 20 years, he wrote two Church Guide Books and published the Greatest Little Boat in the World in 1990. Ranson died on 23 June 2014, aged 91 years. With copied biographical details.