Ralph Ewart Sutton was born in Lambeth, London on 14th April 1887. He was the son of Charles and Florence (née Ford). In 1891, the family was living in Plymouth, having moved around England, particularly the south coast, for several years. In 1901, Ralph was living in Brighton, working for his uncle as a trunk maker’s assistant. He enlisted in the 1st Royal Sussex Regiment on 6th January 1905 as this was not the life he wished to lead.

Ralph was soon posted abroad, first to Malta from September 1905 to March 1906; Crete until the end of January 1907; then India, returning home in November 1912. He was transferred to the reserve on his return to England and found employment as an attendant at St Audry’s Hospital. It was here he met his future wife, Ivy Jane Harfitt, who worked in the hospital laundry.

When war was declared on 4th August 1914, Ralph returned to the Regimental Depot in Woking where he joined the 2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment – the 1st Battalion were on a posting to India. On 12th August, Ralph and the battalion boarded the SS Agapenor for the short journey across the channel to Le Havre and were almost immediately into battle. Part of the 2nd Brigade in the 1st Division, the battalion were moving towards Mons to try and stop the German advance through Belgium. 

 

On 23rd August, they were a few miles short of Mons when it became plain that the Allies would not be able to stop the advance and the Retreat from Mons started. Over the next five days, the battalion was almost permanently on the move, grabbing sleep as and when they could during short bivouac halts. Eventually, on the 29th August, the battalion was able to stop to catch their breath before the retreat resumed once more.

For Ralph, this was the end of the road and he was admitted to a field ambulance and evacuated suffering from malaria. After seventeen days in hospital, Ralph was sent for a period of convalescence in Hounslow before being found to be “no longer physically fit for war service” and discharged from the army. For his war service, Ralph received the 1914 Star with Clasp and Rose, the British War and Victory Medals along with a Silver War Badge.

Ralph returned to Melton and his post of attendant at St Audry’s Hospital on 26 November 1914. The following year, Ralph resigned and moved to Cambridge where he married Ivy. By 1922, Ralph and Ivy had two children and were living in London; Ralph worked as a clerical officer in the Civil Service. In 1939, the family was living in Eton, Buckinghamshire, and Ralph was working for the Inland Revenue service at Somerset House in London. Ralph died in 1963 in Iver, Buckinghamshire.