William Whiteread Ratcliffe was born on 6 October 1870 in the village of Clenchwarton, just west of King's Lynn in Norfolk, the youngest of four children of Zachariah Johnson Ratcliffe and Kezia Ratcliffe (née Harness). When Ratcliffe was young, the family moved to Manchester where his father was employed as a clerk and then a labourer, living at 4 Norbury Street in the suburb of Gorton. After leaving school Ratcliffe worked as a clerk in a cotton merchant's office, and for seven years attended evening classes in practical design at Manchester School of Art, where the Director of Design was Walter Crane (1845-1915), a committed socialist and influential member of the Arts and Crafts movement*.

Perhaps inspired by the Arts and Crafts...