Gary Ralfe

Gary Ralfe, a former head boy of Michaelhouse, is the former managing director of the De Beers Group. After a History Tripos at St John’s College, Cambridge, he joined Anglo American Corporation in October 1966.

Ralfe worked for nearly 40 years for Anglo American and its sister company, De Beers. His last posting was Managing Director of the De Beers Group.

Shortly after his retirement from De Beers in 2006, he was elected to the Board of Governors of Michaelhouse and in rapid succession was appointed deputy chairman and then chairman for nine years.

Author's books

Stars of the Morning

Established in Pietermaritzburg in 1896 and transferred to rural Balgowan in 1901, Michaelhouse has been one of South Africa’s premier senior boarding schools for boys for more than a century. Stars of the Morning chronicles the history of the school, from the move to Balgowan and the indelible imprint left by the two world wars to the impact of load shedding and Covid-19.