William Ralston Shedden-Ralston (1828–1889), known in his early life as William Ralston Shedden, who later adopted the additional surname of Ralston, was a noted British scholar and translator of Russia and Russian. Biography William Ralston Shedden-Ralston (1828-1889) was born on 4 April 1828 in York Terrace, Regent's Park, London, as the third child and only son of William Patrick Ralston Shedden (1794-1880) and Frances Sophia Browne (1804-). His mother was the 3rd daughter of William Browne (1762-1833) of Galway, Calcutta and Sydney. His father, born in New York of Scottish paternity and schooled in Scotland, had made his fortune as a merchant in Calcutta, India, before setting up home in Palmira Square, Brighton. William Ralston Shedden-Ralston spent most of his early years there. Together with three or four other boys he studied under the Rev. John Hogg of Brixham, Devonshire, until he went to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1846, where he studied law and graduated with a BA in 1850. In 1852 William's father entered into a lengthy but unsuccessful litigation over his claim to the Ralston estates in Ayrshire, Scotland. The cost dissipated his fortune. The family pressed the claim for many years. William's sister, Annabella Jean Ralston Sheddon (1823-1873), took up the pleadings, and at one stage in 1861 conducted the case before a committee of the House of Lords for more than thirty days while their father was in prison for unpaid legal debts. William had prepared for and been called to the bar before his father's litigation began, but the change in the family's fortunes after the initial unfavourable decision in 1852, forced him to seek a more secure living. He also adopted the additional surname of Ralston. On 1 September 1853 William went to work as a junior assistant in the printed-book department of the British Museum, where his zeal and ability won the respect of his superiors. The work began with the requisite two years copying titles for the printed books catalogue, and thereafter he rose slowly through the ranks. When he saw a need for someone who could catalogue Russian books, he began studying Russian, and even learned pages of the dictionary by heart. William also studied Russian literature. He translated 93 of Ivan Andreevich Krylov's two hundred fables, and this work, published in 1868 as Krilof and his Fables, ran to numerous editions. The following year he brought out a translation of