Ralph Mansfield

Ralph Mansfield (12 March 1799 – 1 September 1880) was a Methodist missionary and newspaper editor in colonial Australia.

Born in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, son of Ralph Mansfield, an earthenware manufacturer, and his wife Ann, née Worthington.

Mansfield arrived in Sydney, New South Wales, in September 1820. Mansfield was editor of The Sydney Gazette, the first newspaper published in New South Wales, from 1829 to 1832, and was leader-writer for another Sydney newspaper, The Colonist, for several years. From 1841 he contributed to the Sydney Morning Herald. In 1836 he presided at a public meeting held in Sydney to promote the lighting of the city with gas. A gas-light company was formed, of which Mansfield was secretary from 29 June 1836, till his death in Parramatta, New South Wales, on 1 September 1880.