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Maj Joseph Holroyd Ratton
British Army 163rd Siege Bty Royal Garrison Artillery
from:Cresswell Park, Blackheath
(d.2nd September 1917)
Major Joesph Ratton served with the 163rd Seige Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery in WW1. He died 2nd of September 1917 age 35 years.
Extract from "Stonyhurst College War Record. A Memorial of the part taken by Stonyhurst Men in The Great War.". Issued by the Authorities of Stonyhurst College, Printed by Bemrose & Sons Ltd, Derby, 1927. Page 245: Major Joseph Holroyd Ratton, Royal Garrison Artillery. In a little over two years Lieut-Col. Ratton, late I.M.S., was called upon to make the sacrifice of his two sons 2nd Lieut. W. H. Ratton (1901), Queen's T.F., who died on 9th of July 1915, and then of his elder son, Major Joseph Ratton, R.G.A.
Joseph Ratton was born in February, 1882, and came to Stonyhurst in 1893. His mother was a Holroyd, a great-granddaughter of the Hon. Sir George Sawley Holroyd, Kt., a Judge of the Court of King's Bench. Both his grandfathers were officers of the 3rd Madras Light Cavalry. His father, Lieut.-Col. Ratton, M.D., of Blackheath, late Indian Medical Service, served in the Abyssinian War, in 1868.
He was noted for his Catholic social activities, and was the author of several works on medical and exegetical subjects. In 1901, after leaving Stonyhurst, Joseph passed into the Royal Artillery through the Royal Military Academy. He was promoted Captain in July, 1914, and Major in July, 1916. The greater part of his service was spent in West Africa, during which he explored the hinterland of the Gold Coast and of the French Ivory Coast.
Early in 1914, he trekked alone from the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast to the source of the Niger, mapping a part of the country that had not till then been surveyed.
On the outbreak of war he was Intelligence Officer of the Gold Coast, and on the conclusion of the Togoland campaign, became Acting Military Governor of Togoland, at Lome, the capital. Later, he commanded a battery on the Cameroons Expedition, and assisted in the capture of Jaunde. On the completion of this expedition he was sent to France, where he commanded a siege battery at the battles of Vimy Ridge, Messines, and Ypres, and was killed at Ypres at his guns, in action, by a shell splinter in the heart.
That was the mode of death he always told his relatives that he would prefer, if he was to be killed, that is, instantaneously. He was killed on a Sunday, having been to Mass and Holy Communion that very morning.
His cousin spoke of " his manliness and nobleness of character "; there was always an " attractive personality and a sincerity that drew one almost instinctively to him." Another relative spoke of him as "one of the finest characters I have ever known, and his death a fitting end to a glorious life. I have often heard Joe say he would much rather die as he did than from an illness."
When he was killed, his batman, on hearing the news, cried like a child. All letters received by his father agreed in bearing witness to his popularity as a manly gentleman, most considerate to all in his company. The Captain of his Battery wrote: "September md, 1917. He was killed instantaneously at two o'clock this afternoon by a splinter at his old position, where he lost his late Captain and others." He added: "We are all sincerely and heartily grieved to lose such a fine C.O. and man as he was. He was most considerate to all, always insisted on sharing the work with us fairly, and was extremely popular. We hardly seem to be able to realise that he can no longer come in with his cheery smile and poke fun at us."
