Ralph Richardson WS FRSE FRSGS FEGS (22 November 1845 – 26 June 1933) was a Scottish lawyer and noted amateur geologist and historian.
He was born in Edinburgh on 22 November 1845 the son of Alison Black, daughter of Adam Black, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and her husband James Richardson FRSE (d.1868), a merchant.
He was then apprenticed as a lawyer to Maclachlan, Ivory and Rodger WS at 25 Castle Street.
He also undertook formal studies in law at the University of Edinburgh and the College de France in Paris.
His proposers were David Milne Home, Ramsay Heatley Traquair, Alexander Buchan and John Hutton Balfour.