Ralph Westerham

In the Tommy and Tuppence short story The Ambassador's Boots, Ralph Westerham is a United States senator and a friend of Randolph Wilmott, the American ambassador to the Court of St. James. Both men had travelled to England about a week before the events in the story on board the Nomadic.

A mix up happened with their luggage on disembarkation. The ambassador took home a kitbag which belonged to Westerham. Westerham apparently realised this quickly and sent his valet to the embassy to return the ambassador's kitbag and retrieve his own. Both kitbags looked alike and as both men had the same initials, this mix up was considered quite natural. However when Wilmott later met Westerham and mentioned the mix up to him, Westerham knew nothing about it. In fact he denied having such a design of kit bag among his luggage. Although no harm had been done, Wilmott was puzzled by the mystery and approached the The International Detective Agency to get to the bottom of it.

Portrayals
Ralph Westerham does appear in LWT's 1983 adaptation of the story (Episode 6 of Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime) but the actor who portrayed him is not credited. Westerham is seen at the garden party at the U.S. embassy which takes place at the beginning of the episode. Ambassador Wilmott jokes with him about the mix up but Westerham doesn't know what the a,bassador is talking about and says he is mistaken. Although the ambassador does mention Westerham's firstname Ralph to Tommy and Tuppence, during the garden party, he calls Westerham "Harry".