RATCLIFFE, Henry Hopetoun
| Service Number: | 2778 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 9 August 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1) |
| Born: | Walhalla, Victoria, Australia, 1890 |
| Home Town: | Kalgoorlie, Kalgoorlie/Boulder, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Boilermaker |
| Died: | Killed in action, Mouquet Farm, France, 3 September 1916 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France), Walhalla War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 9 Aug 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2778, 28th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Nov 1915: | Involvement Private, 2778, 28th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '16' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Ulysses embarkation_ship_number: A38 public_note: '' | |
| 2 Nov 1915: | Embarked Private, 2778, 28th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ulysses, Fremantle | |
| 3 Sep 1916: | Involvement Private, 2778, 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1), Battle for Pozières , --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 2778 awm_unit: 51 Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1916-09-03 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
‘Hope’ Ratcliffe was the son of James and Mary Ratcliffe of Beria, Western Australia. Beria is today an abandoned gold mining town, almost 1000 kilometres north east of Perth. His father died in 1905 when he was about 15 years of age.
Ratcliffe worked for a large mining engineering company on the goldfields of Kalgoorlie for about seven years before he enlisted.
He was reported missing during the battle for Mouquet Farm in which the 51st Battalion suffered hundreds of casualties. His remains were never found.
Pte. H. H. Ratcliffe, wrote the following letter to a friend in Boulder only two weeks before he was killed at Mouquet Farm. It was printed in the Kalgoorlie newspaper, November 1916, after he went missing, “Just a few lines in answer to your letter, which I received after we came out of the trenches again. I happened to be one of the lucky ones, and missed the shells. We had a pretty warm time while were there, but it is all over for a while. I have been sent to machine-gun school for a few days and I suppose when I’m finished, I will be back to the trenches. The Germans themselves will not fight. It is only their big guns that we have to beat, and then they have ours. I would like to see the war over before the winter sets in. Our boys are sure to feel the cold weather. The Australians have done everything they have been asked to do, up to date, so it is something to be proud of. I met Sam Howells (a Kalgoorlie boy) last week. He looks real well. You can guess we had a long yarn. He told me that he got a slight wound in the shoulder, but was only three days in hospital.”
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