My late father was in Signal Troop attached to 1st Commando Brigade HQ under Lord Lovatt. As is well known, they landed at Ouistreham (Sword Queen Red) on D Day and pushed inland to relieve Major Howard's coup de main force which had landed by glider the night before. I'm currently looking into the career of Major James Moore Ratcliffe whose son (as "Samarkand") has contributed to this group. Some years ago whilst researching an unrelated subject at the Public Record Office (now The National Archives) in Kew, I came upon by chance a submission by Maj Ratcliffe (who up to that time I'd never heard of) in one of a batch of files I was trawling through. There was no mention of Maj Ratcliffe on the cover of the file nor in the PRO's catalogue description, nor by unit nor by theatre of operations, so no-one researching him would think to look there. For this reason I wonder if the incident related in the file, which Major Ratcliffe described in graphic detail, may not be known elsewhere, and I would very much like to speak to his son, or to anyone with detailed knowledge of the Major's career, to discuss this.
Hi Nick and welcome, Just to bring everyone up to speed Nick refers to member "Samarkand" whose 2013 post on his father, Captain James Moore Ratcliffe, appears in the following thread: 130652 Captain James Moore Ratcliffe DSO, GM. The Middlesex Regiment Nick you could try contacting him by private message (PM). Go to "Inbox" beside your user name at top and click "Start a New Conversation". Hopefully his email address has not changed since then. Regards ...
As he has not been on the forum since 2014 I will email him for you, assuming he still uses the same address. edit: nope, it's been returned . Address not found Your message wasn't delivered to XXXXX because the address couldn't be found. Check for typos or unnecessary spaces and try again.
Many thanks for your assistance Owen. I guess my next step should be the archive of the Middlesex Regiment.
