• Short Summary

    Shots of Liverpool Docker hero, Private William Ratcliffe, Victoria Cross winner. Merseyside.

  • Description

    Liverpool Docker hero; Victoria Cross winner.

    Merseyside.

    MS Private William Ratcliffe ("The Dockers VC") standing and speaking with flags as backdrop; other soldiers; and a woman sit listening. He sits next to young man in priest collar and robes; priest and other soldiers applaud. CU soldiers & priest sitting in row; listening to some other speaker now.

    MS crowd of little girls going wild; all waving white handkerchiefs or paper or something; brick wall in background. MS soldier and a couple of men in foreground. Pan across the masses of little girls.

    Back to soldiers; priest; woman listening to more speeches. Then back to the children cheering; Ratcliffe and others walk through the crowd of children.

  • Tags

  • Data

    Film ID:
    1872.13
    Media URN:
    71992
    Group:
    Old negatives
    Archive:
    British Pathé
    Issue Date:
    1914 - 1918
    Sound:
    sound
    HD Format:
    Available on request
    Stock:
    Black & White
    Duration:
    00:00:56:00
    Time in/Out:
    01:11:28:00 / 01:12:24:00
    Canister:
    ON 057 D

Comments (5)

  1. Unknown user says

    I believe this to be Private William Ratcliffe..

    Freeze the clip at 00:01, and compare his image with the photograph of William Ratcliffe on this page here......

    http://liverpoolremembrance.weebly.com/lo
    cal-vc-winners.html

    Note that Ratcliffe was a Liverpool man, and was known after the war as "The Dockers VC", so this seems to me to add up......

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  2. Unknown user says

    My belief that this was William Ratcliffe is confirmed - I've just found him again in another clip, named this time, (although mis-spelt as Radcliffe), in clip 1890.34.

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  3. Unknown user says

    Brilliant - thanks again.

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  4. Unknown user says

    Given that Ratcliffe won his Victoria Cross in 1917, I think the date range should be changed to perhaps 1917-19, as this ceremony may have taken place just after the war). What do you think?

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  5. Unknown user says

    This was reported in the Liverpool Weekly Courier on 08.09 1917. The event took place on 06.09. 1917. Two priests attended. Father J Prescott, who had been at the front for over two years, and Father Toomey

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