Name
Cecil Charles Alexander Ratcliff-Gaylard
17 September 1899
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
20/05/1915
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
167
Australian Infantry, A.I.F.
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LONE PINE CEMETERY, ANZAC
III. D. 2.
Turkey (including Gallipoli)
Headstone Inscription
I ASKED LIFE FOR HIM THOU GAVEST HIM LIFE FOR EVERMORE
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Hemel Hempstead memorials, King's College, Taunton Memorial Plaque
Pre War
Cecil Charles Alexander Ratcliff-Gaylard was born on 17 September 1889 at the Ferns, Shildon, County Durham, the son of James and (Mary) Jeannie Ratcliff-Gaylard and baptised on 16 October 1889 at Shildon.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at 2 St John's Road, Shildon, Durham, where his father was working as a General Practitioner of Medicine . They had moved to Manchester by 1901 and were living at 7 Grey Marsh Lane. His father was then listed as a Surgeon.
He was educated at Aberdeen and Manchester Grammar Schools and King's College, Taunton, Somerset, Whilst at Aberdeen he was a member of the volunteer battalion, Gordon Highlanders (Students Section, Aberdeen University).
By 1911 the family were living in Birkenhead, Cheshire, at which time Cecil was working as a Clerk at a Railway Agents. He was said to be a great sportsman and an excellent shot.
He went to Australia in September 1911 and when war broke out he was Assistant Manager on a Station in New South Wales.
His parents later lived at "The Lindens," Hemel Hempstead, Herts.
Wartime Service
He was one of the first 200 to volunteer at the outbreak of war in Randwick, New South Wales on 19 August 1914, and served with the 2nd Battalion, Australian Infantry. They left for Egypt in October 1914 and went on to the Dardanelles in April 1915.
He was killed in action during the great attack by the Turks on the Australian positions, north of Gaba Tepe, Gallipoli on 19/20 May 1915. He was initially buried in Victoria Gully Cemetery No. 3 Gallipoli, about half a mile south east of Anzac Cove, but was later exhumed and is now buried at Lone Pine Cemetery, Turkey.
Additional Information
His father, Ratcliff-Gaylard, 10 Clifton Road, Birkenhead, ordered his headstone inscription: "I ASKED LIFE FOR HIM THOU GAVEST HIM LIFE FOR EVERMORE". Brother to Eric Ronald Ratcliff-Gaylard who died on 19 July 1916 and who is buried at Laventie Military Cemetery, La Gorgue, France. His father obtained probate of his estate in Chester on 27 January 1916 with effects of £32 19s 5d.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, warmemorialsonline.org.uk, www.naa.gov.au.,
