Born on 30 November 1895, Ralph Adam Nicholson, the son of William Lambton and Adamina Eliza Nicholson, joined the Royal Navy as a Cadet at the Royal Naval College, Osborne on the Isle of Wight on 15 September 1908. Promoted to Midshipman on 15 May 1913, Nicholson had joined his first ship, the Battleship HMS CENTURION (Captain Michel Culme-Seymour, MVO, Royal Navy) on 15 May 1913.  Promotion to Sub Lieutenant came on 15 May 1915 followed by further promotion to Lieutenant on 15 June 1917.

In November the same year he joined HMS DOLPHIN ‘for Submarine Training’. This was followed by an appointment to the Mediterranean to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS ADAMANT (Special Service Flotilla 2) at Brindisi to date 1 February 1918 and, on 1 May 1918 to HMS E11 as First Lieutenant.

He returned home in August 1918 and joined the Submarine Depot Ship HMS LUCIA (10th Submarine Flotilla) at South Bank, Middlesbrough ‘for Submarines’. On 1st January 1919, he was appointed to HMS E33 as First Lieutenant before moving on to be First Lieutenant of L18 in August 1920.

He then moved back to Portsmouth when, on 6 July 1922 he joined HMS DOLPHIN (Reserve Group of Submarines), where he completed the Commanding Officers Qualifying Course (COQC) successfully and joined HMS H31 on 17 October in Command, still at HMS DOLPHIN. In August 1924, Nicholson returned to the surface fleet for ‘Big Ship refresher experience’ aboard the Battleship HMS ROYAL SOVEREIGN.

Promoted to Lieutenant Commander on 15 January 1925, he returned to the Mediterranean in August 1926 when appointed to the Submarine Flotilla Leader, HMS CONQUEST (1st Submarine Flotilla), on Malta, and to Command of HMS L18.

Returning home on 4 May 1927, Ralph Nicholson fulfilled several appointments between 1927 and 1929, including HMS DOLPHIN at Gosport and HMS GANGES (the Boys Training Establishment) at Shotley, near Ipswich.  He returned to General Service on 4 September 1929 with an appointment to the Cruiser HMS CURACAO.  He was appointed to HMS PRESIDENT ‘as Officer Instructor RNVR, Tyne Division’ in January 1932.  On 2 September 1935 he was joined HMS PEMBROKE (the Royal Naval Barracks) at Chatham ‘as Assistant to the Drafting Commander’.  On 24 January 1939 he was appointed to HMS PEMBROKE ‘for Duty with Naval Air Stations’.  He had left HMS PEMBROKE by December 1939 and was transferred to the Retired List as a Commander on 30 November 1940.

However, at the outbreak of WW2, he was recalled for further service, joining HMS MERLIN (RN Air Station, Donibristle, Scotland) on 27 February 1940.  Ralph Nicholson was appointed OBE – see London Gazette dated 31 December 1943, which was subsequently presented to his widow.  In June 1944, he was appointed to HMS PEMBROKE (additional) ‘as the Drafting Commander’.

Ralph Nicholson is reported to have died suddenly in the Royal Naval Hospital at Chatham on 13 May 1945, of a coronary thrombosis.  He left a widow, Kathleen May Nicholson of Meopham in Kent.  He was buried in the Gillingham (Woodlands) Cemetery, in the Naval Reservation, in Grave No. 1581.