'Lancastrian through and through': Touching tributes to Lord Clitheroe after death at 96
The family of Lord Clitheroe, Ralph John Assheton, have paid tribute to him after he died peacefully at home at the age of 96.
Intrinsically linked to the village of Downham in the Ribble Valley, Lord Clitheroe spent his childhood between London and Downham, before preparatory school in Oxfordshire.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, he spent two terms at Clitheroe Grammar School and then went to Eton, where he won a Scholarship for chemistry and earned another chemistry Scholarship to Christchurch College, Oxford.
Lord Clitheroe served his National Service with The Life Guards regiment and he then worked for Borax Consolidated. He married Juliet Hanbury in 1961 and lived in Buckinghamshire, where they brought up three children. His work at Rio Tinto Zinc saw him travel the world in increasingly senior management roles.
On the death of his father in 1984, Lord Clitheroe sat in the House of Lords, where he lent his expertise on business and mining matters, until most hereditary peers were banned. Retirement was largely spent at home, being a happy country and family man, who relished taking care of the area around Downham as generations of his forebears had done.
A spokesperson for the family said: “He was a Lancastrian through and through, appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for the county and later acting as Vice Lieutenant for five years. He was president of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust and also chairman of the Yorkshire Bank.
“Lord Clitheroe was a committed Anglican, and was president of the Blackburn branch of The Prayer Book Society. Up until his late 80s he read the lesson at St Leonard’s, Downham, each Sunday.”
He was predeceased in 2025 by his beloved wife and is much missed by his children Ralph, John and Elizabeth and his eight grandchildren. His eldest son Ralph Christopher has inherited the title to become the Lord Clitheroe.
The Assheton family has held the manor of Downham in Lancashire since 1558 and has managed the village and surrounding estate for centuries, while the estate has passed through a direct male line of the Asshetons since 1680.