Elias's Story.
Birkenhead News 03 March 1917
A Lance-Corporal at Fifteen
Killed in Action
ON HIS LAST DAY IN THE TRENCHES
We regret to announce the death in action of Private Elias Ratcliffe, of the Cheshire Regiment, who was killed by the explosion of a shell on the 10th February last. This gallant youth (for he was only 16 years of age) joined the army when he was only 15 years of age, and in a few months after enlisting he was made a lance-corporal. His parents, however, succeeded in getting him out, but he was determined to go into the Army, and joined again under the name of Private George Griffiths. The circumstances of the unfortunate youth’s death are more distressing on account of the fact that his discharge had been applied for, and on the very day he was to have come out of the trenches he was killed by the explosion of a shell. Previous to enlisting he worked at Messrs. Morton’s bookstall, Oxton Road.