Ralph Garlick (1876-1931) - A Stratford Story

Ralph Garlick was born in 1876 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His father was a prominent burgess, a leading member of the Congregational Church, a music teacher of long standing, and the proprietor of a music warehouse. Ralph joined Shakespeare’s old school King Edward VI under its visionary headmaster the Rev. de Courcy Laffan. He became the school’s first Head Boy and in 1893 led the first procession in what was to become an integral part of the town’s annual celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday. In 1894 he was awarded an Open Classical Scholarship to Pembroke College, Oxford where he became a successful oarsman.

He joined the Indian Civil Service and obtained his inaugural posting to Bengal in 1900. He advanced steadily through the ranks of the judiciary until in 1929 he was appointed a judge to the Calcutta High Court. These were turbulent times, however, with nationalist revolutionaries launching murderous attacks on British officials. In July 1931 Judge Garlick was shot and killed in his courtroom at Alipore. His murder was widely reported in the English press and was condemned in the House of Commons and in India itself. His ashes were returned to Stratford where they were committed to his parents’ grave in the Evesham Road Cemetery. In 1934 a handsome memorial tablet was unveiled at King Edward VI School; it has recently been refurbished and rehung.