Name
Ernest Ratcliffe
1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
02/09/1916
18
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
18944
Essex Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VLAMERTINGHE MILITARY CEMETERY
IV. C. 8.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Bishop's Stortford memorials,
Epping War Memorial, Essex
Pre War
Ernest Ratcliffe was born in 1897, the youngest child of William and Mary Ann Ratcliffe. On the 1901 Census, the family were living as boarders with James Oakley at Church Hill, Epping. On the 1911 Census he was a 13 year old schoolboy living with his family at Ivy Cottage, Epping, Essex. He married Elizabeth Amelia Surridge in Epping in early 1915. They had a daughter, Ernestine born on 27 November 1915. His widow later lived at Tawny Common, Epping.
Wartime Service
He enlisted at Warley Essex and served in the 1st Battalion, Essex Regiment and was in Egypt from 1 December 1915. The Essex Regiment returned to the Western Front and sailed from Alexandria on 16 March 1916. Once in France they established a camp near to Abbeville.
Ernest was killed during the Battle of the Somme.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £5 10s and pay owing of £1 9s 5d. She also received a pension of 15 shillings a week from 19 March 1917.
N.B. the surname Ratcliffe is spelt without an e on the birth registration but usually with the ‘e’ , on all subsequent documents.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
