ELLIS, Ethelbert James
| Service Number: | 1944 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 1st Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Devonport, Tasmania, Australia, 15 January 1893 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Plasterer |
| Died: | Natural Causes, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia , 8 September 1963, aged 70 years |
| Cemetery: |
Rookwood Cemeteries & Crematorium, New South Wales |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 25 Jun 1915: | Involvement Private, 1944, 1st Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '7' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ceramic embarkation_ship_number: A40 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Jun 1915: | Embarked Private, 1944, 1st Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ceramic, Sydney | |
| 5 Aug 1915: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 1944, 1st Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli | |
| 6 Aug 1915: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 1944, 1st Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli, E.James Ellis was wounded in the days immediately following him joining his unit on Gallipoli on 5 August 1915. He was uplifted to hospital in London via Malta on 12 August 1915. |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Greg Ellis
Ethelbert James Ellis was born in Devonport, Tasmania on 15 January 1893. The eldest of three sons of Ethelbert James Ellis (snr) and Alice Maud Mary Ellis (nee Foster), he died on 8 September 1963, aged 70 years and 9 months.
Although he disliked the name Ethelbert and signed his enlistment 'E. James Ellis', he was affectionately known as Bert. He enlisted on his 22nd birthday, 15 January, 2015 (making him the only one of the three brothers to tell the truth on his enlistment), and was deemed medically fit to serve on 27 January 1915.
Bill was assigned to the 1st Infantry Battalion and departed for the Middle East on 15 June 1915. He then joined his unit in Gallipoli on 5 August 1915, which was just as the intensity of fighting re-escalated there after a short period of relative quiescence. In the days immediately following, 6-11 August, Bert was declared missing but was found on the 11th to be seriously wounded. He was uplifted on 12 August to St. David's hospital in Malta. From there he embarked on 21 August for England and then admitted, on 30 August 1915, to King Georges Hospital in London.
That was the last of the war that Bert saw. He returned to Australia in March 1916 on the Hospital ship 'SS Star of Victoria' and was discharged as medically unfit on 28 August 1916.
Shortly after he enlisted Bert married Octavia Hodgson. Bert and Octavia had six children, three girls and three boys, two of whom, Bertram and Edward died in infancy between 1917 and 1920. Their three girls, Beryl, Ida and Jean, and a boy born in 1929, Ethelbert James (the 3rd) outlived their parents. Bert's first wife Octavia died in 1954. In 1956, Bert married Elsie Anderson (nee Pugh-Nichols) who outlived Bert by 18 years.
Not long after Bert had been seriously wounded in August 1915, indeed, as he was lying in hospital in London, his younger brothers, William George (service no. 4419) and Ronald Charles (no. 3057) were separately making their own journeys to the war; Ronald in the 17th infantry battalion, and William in the 18th. However both would arrive after the AIF withdrawal from Gallipoli where their elder brother had served, and would be posted to the Western front. Ronald would spend 2 and a half years as a PoW in Germany, and William would be shot as the AIF 2nd Division penetrated the Hindenburg line in the final decisive battle of the war, and the last day of the war for the AIF in Europe, 3 October 1918. They both survived to be united with their older brother.