Submitted by Pat Burgess.
Ralph Metcalfe and Elizabeth Close were possibly unmarried when their eldest son was born towards the end of 1893 at Gunnerside. Hence he was given his father’s surname as a christian name and his mothers surname name.
Ralph and Elizabeth were both born in Swaledale, he in Muker, and she at Melbecks. In 1901 the family, which now included another two sons and two daughters, was living at Fell House, Hartley, Nr. Kirkby Stephen.
Metcalfe enlisted at Richmond, as it appears he was working at Browson Bank Farm, on the A66, at that time.
His Battalion was sent to fight in Palestine, where sadly he contracted malaria and died on 14 June 1918.
He is buried in Gaza War Cemetery.
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