Captain John Trattles
John Trattles born in 1878 in Staithes, went to
sea in 1897, with the intetion of making his career in the Merchant
Navy. His career was cloudedissues relating to possible colour
blindness. For a period of 6 years there was controversy in the
government because of conflicting outcomes of eyetests from many
specialists, however eventually it was concluded that MrTrattles
had no visual defect that would affect his chosen career. It is
saidthat the Trattles case blew open the whole matter of colour
vision and it remained remarkably open ever since.
For further information read A Statue to Mr Trattles
by C.L.Boltz
Mr Trattles was a modest, perplexed, brown-eyed
sailor of thirty-one"
Francis Trattles
Henry Trattle was Mayor of Newport in both 1781 and 1789; William
Clarke and William Carter
were mainland Quakers. The Trattles were a well known and long
established Island family.
It is generally assumed that nearly a hundred and fifty years
earlier it was the young
daughter of a Trattle who presented Charles I with a rose as he
rode through Newport to
sign the Treaty of Newport. The incident was preserved in a painting
by a French artist
some years later.
Source: Patrick A Nott - History
of the last 350 years of the Isle of Wight
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