Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Private E. Ratcliffe, Royal Lancaster Regiment, who was killed in action in Salonika in September 1918
British War and Victory Medals (26179 Pte. E. Ratcliffe, R. Lanc. R.), together with related Memorial Plaque (Ernest Ratcliffe), and Buckingham Palace memorial scroll, the whole contained in two old glazed wooden frames, good very fine (Lot) £180-220

Ernest Ratcliffe, who was born in Stepney, the son of a Police Constable, was killed in action in the battle of Doiran on 19 September 1918, while serving in the 9th Battalion, Royal Lancaster Regiment. One of numerous casualties suffered that day, when the Allies stormed a 2000 ft. high mountain ridge defended by the Bulgarians from a series of bunkers and fortresses. He was 32 years of age, and the husband of Alice Louisa (nee Martinali) who, tragically, died of influenza a few weeks later, leaving their three orphaned children who were placed into care in Norfolk. Ratcliffe has no known grave and is commemorated on the Doiran Memorial, Greece; sold with a large quantity of research carried out by his descendants, including additional information on the Martinali family, originally from Switzerland.