Painter, printmaker and designer, born at Churchwater, Norfolk. Studied at Manchester School of Art, then spent almost 20 years designing wallpaper. Met the painter Harold Gilman in 1908, who persuaded Ratcliffe to paint. Studied briefly part-time at the Slade School of Fine Art, 1910. Attended Fitzroy Street meetings, exhibited at AAA, was a member of the Camden Town Group just before World War I and a founder-member of the LG. Painted in Dieppe with Walter Sickert and in Sweden, encouraged by Gilman. From the early 1920s Ratcliffe concentrated on watercolours and wood engravings. Although he exhibited at the Carfax Gallery, NEAC, Goupil Gallery and in America, Ratcliffe had to wait for his first one-man show until 1946, at Roland, Browse and Delbanco.