Alfred Gratte

(Photo and text from "Who's Who In Newport" 1920.)

Gratte, Alfred was born at Plymouth in 1856, and brought to Newport when he was four months old. He is a son of the late H. J. Gratte, whose father was a Frenchman, a native of Normandy, and who held a command and fought under Napoleon Bonaparte. He took part in the Battle of Austerlitz, and was one of the few who returned from Moscow, and was decorated with the Legion of Honour. Mr. Alfred Gratte was educated at Newport and at Weston College, Bath, and afterwards qualified as an analytical chemist. He subsequently joined his father in the wholesale export chemist's business, of which - on the latter's decease in 1890 - he assumed the sole control. He is today the proprietor of the firm of Messrs. H. J. Gratte and Son. which was originally founded in 1856, and is now the oldest shipping chemists business in the Bristol Channel. The headquarters are at Newport, with a branch at Barry Dock (Tel. 0130), which latter was opened in 1894. In addition to the foregoing, a considerable trade is done in the import of Havanna and Mexican cigars. Mr. Gratte is an Imperialist in politics. Address: 55 Commercial Road (Tel. 3003) and 216 Stow Hill. Residence: Preswylfa, Stow Park Avenue. Tel. 2924.