Born on 29 March 1910, the third child of David Shackman, a manufacturing jeweller and diamond merchant, Ralph was educated at the Grocers' Company School and St Bartholomew's Hospital. Before the second world war he was the resident surgical officer at the Royal Infirmary Sheffield where he was encouraged and trained by Sir Ernest Finch. He served in the war as a surgical specialist in the RAF attaining the rank of Wing-Commander. On demobilisation he devoted his career to the work of the department of surgery in the Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith Hospital and was fortunate to work as a lecturer with Professor George Grey Turner and as a reader with Professor Ian Aird. He later became Professor of Urology at the University, the first to hold the title. He became an accomplished academic and clinical urologist and made early and important contributions in the field of renal failure, renal dialysis and renal transplantation. In 1960 with W J Dempster he carried out Britain's first kidney transplant. He continued to follow the cause of urology and was a member of the council of the BAUS and of the committee on renal transplantation. He was an early and active member of the Surgical Research Society and gave encouragement to those aspiring to become urologists and academic surgeons. He served the Royal College of Surgeons as Chairman of the Court of Examiners. He married Ida Mary Seal in 1940. His special interests at home included gardening, carpentry and cricket. He died in June 1981, aged 71 years.