Background
William Whitehead Ratcliffe was born on 6 October 1870 in the village of Clenchwarton, near Kings Lynn (Norfolk, United Kingdom), the youngest of four children.
William Whitehead Ratcliffe was born on 6 October 1870 in the village of Clenchwarton, near Kings Lynn (Norfolk, United Kingdom), the youngest of four children.
His father, Zachariah, was a draper"s assistant. The family moved to Gorton, near Manchester, while Ratcliffe was still young. After leaving school and while working as a clerk for a cotton merchant, he attended evening classes at the Manchester School of Art, whose director of design at the time was Walter Crane, and learned wallpaper design.
By 1901, Ratcliffe was working for the Wallpaper Manufacturers Combine.
Shortly afterwards, his work took him to London, where he discovered the Garden City movement, which drew him to Letchworth Garden City, where he moved in 1906. By 1907, Ratcliffe was living in Westholm, close to Stanley Parker, brother of the Garden City architect Barry.
Under Gilman"s influence and encouragement, Ratcliffe turned his back on commercial art and illustration, devoting the rest of his life to fine art Ratcliffe died of heart failure and arteriosclerosis in January 1955.
His body was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and the ashes dispersed.