| Honorific Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Lord Clitheroe | |
| Birth Name: | Ralph Assheton |
| Office1: | Member of the House of Lords |
| Status1: | Lord Temporal |
| Term Start1: | 21 June 1955 |
| Predecessor1: | Peerage created |
| Term End1: | 18 September 1984 |
| Successor1: | The 2nd Baron Clitheroe |
| Constituency Mp2: | Blackburn West |
| Term Start2: | 23 February 1950 |
| Term End2: | 6 May 1955 |
| Predecessor2: | Constituency established |
| Successor2: | Constituency abolished |
| Constituency Mp3: | City of London |
| Term Start3: | 31 October 1945 |
| Term End3: | 3 February 1950 |
| Successor3: | Constituency abolished |
| Constituency Mp4: | Rushcliffe |
| Term Start4: | 26 July 1934 |
| Term End4: | 15 June 1945 |
| Predecessor4: | Henry Betterton |
| Successor4: | Florence Paton |
| Birth Date: | 24 February 1901 |
| Children: | 4 |
Ralph Assheton, 1st Baron Clitheroe, (24 February 1901 – 18 September 1984), was an English aristocrat and politician.
Assheton was born on 24 February 1901.[1] His father was Sir Ralph Assheton, 1st Baronet (1860–1955), and his mother, Mildred Estelle Sybella Master (1884–1949). He was educated at Summer Fields School and Eton College.[2]
Assheton was Member of Parliament (MP) for Rushcliffe from 1934 to 1945, for the City of London from 1945 to 1950, and for Blackburn West from 1950 to 1955. In the wartime government under Winston Churchill, he was Minister of Supply in 1942, and Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1942 to 1944. He was sworn of the Privy Council in the 1944 New Year Honours, and served as Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1944 to 1946.
After retiring from the House of Commons at the 1955 general election, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Clitheroe, of Downham in the County Palatine of Lancaster, on 21 June 1955. He succeeded his father as 2nd Baronet three months later.
He was appointed to be a Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire on 16 November 1955, and later served as Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, from 1971 to 1976. He was appointed a Knight of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (KStJ) in February 1972, and appointed to the Royal Victorian Order as a Knight Commander in 1977 on his retirement from the Council of the Duchy of Lancaster.
He married Hon. Sylvia Benita Frances Hotham, daughter of Frederick Hotham, 6th Baron Hotham (1863–1923), on 24 January 1924. They had four children:
Lord Clitheroe died in 1984.[5]