Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

He is commemorated on the YATELEY WAR MEMORIAL.

His connection with Yately is through his Aunt Betty.  In 1895 John Prosser Adams married widow Bessie Ellis Collum of Yateley. Betty Ellis Chute Ellis had married Lucius Joseph Collum in 1881 with a daughter Vera Christina Chute Collum in 1883 in India, before being widowed in 1889. In 1891 she lived with her brother William Ellis Chute Ellis, a barrister and Lt Col, both born in South Australia. Her father Captain John Ellis, Esq, JP, MLC (1803-1873) and Elizabeth Jane White Cathery (1819-1862). Aunt Betty was the youngest of 13 childen. John Prosser Adams (1854-1929) and Betty Ellis Chute Adams (1859-1955) are buried in Yateley.

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John Chute Ellis “Jock”, 2nd Lieutenant Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Field Artillery, 106th Brigade. Died 6 June 1917 age 30, of “wounds”, in Poperinghe, Belgium. He was son of Thomas Chute Ellis (1848-1920) and his wife Agnes Williams (1862-1888), a native of Benara, Mount Gambier, South Australia, born on 13 October 1886. From February 1901 to 1905 he attended Christ College Grammar School in Christchurch, New Zealand, his father listed as Thomas Chute Ellis of Invercargil. He was a member of both Bourne’s house and Moreland’s, a Prefect; XI1903-4 [cricket], XV 1903-4 [rugby]; MD, FRCS, London; Lieut, RHA in Great War. Died of wounds 6 June 1917, in France. His half-brother is also listed at Christ College, William Norton Chute Ellis, in the same houses and duration; Head Prefect; BA 1909; LLB 1911 NZ, Barrister and Solicitor NZ, Grazier, Hamilton, Victoria. His effects were not immediateley claimed after his death. On 23 April 1918 the amount of £81 10s 3d was sent to Melbourne on the “Authy. State Treas., Melbourne to Grantee of Repres’n 17/18”. Also, according to the Army registers of Soldiers’ Effects, he had transferred to the Royal Flying Corps by the time of his death. His obituary in The Register (South Australia) of 12 June 1917: “Mr TC Ellis of Benara, Mount Gambier has received news from the War Office, London, that his son, Lieut John Chute Ellis, RFA, who was previously reported dangerously wounded in France, died on June 6. Lieut Ellis was the third son of Mr TC Ellis and was born in 1886 at Benara. He was educated at the Rev. Hartley William’s High School, Mount Gambier, and afterwards at Christ College, Christchurch, New Zealand, where he was one of the foremost scholars and athletes. He then studied at the Otago University for the medical profession and subsequently proceeded to the London Hospital, where he took the degrees of MRCS and LRCP. When he returned to Australia, a few years ago, he entered upon pastoral pureurte at Eli, Elwah, and Burrabogie Stations, Hay, New South Wales. Soon after the outbreak of the war he arranged with the London Hospital for a medical commission, and proceeded to England. On reaching the old country, however, he obtained a commission in the Royal Field Artillery, and since then served at the front, with the exception of one short interval which he spent instructing in gunnery at St John’s Wood Barracks. His death is deeply regretted at Mount Gambier, where he was much liked, by his former companions and schoolmates. Lieut Ellis was not married.” In the Sydney Morning Herald of 24 January 1918: “Late Lieutenant Ellis. Probate has been granted of the will of Lieutenant John Chute Ellis, RFA, 10th Brigade, formerly of Burrabogie Station, Hay, grazier, who died on June 6, from wounds received whilst he was on active service. Testator appointed his brothers, Thomas Chute Ellis, jun, and William Norton Chute Ellis, executors and trustees of his will. The net value of the estate is £34,769 3b 3d, all, except £20 personalty, consists of estator’s interest in the partnership of Ellis Brothers, in Burrabogie, Eli Elwah, and Bremeran Stations.”

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Obituary: Ellis, John Chute (1886–1917) 

Pastoral Review, 16 October 1917, p 961

We regret to record the fact that Lieut. John Chute Ellis, Royal Horse Artillery, of Burrabogie Station, N.S.W., the representative of a pioneer South Australian family, died of wounds in France on 6th June. He was the third son of Mr. T. C. Ellis, of Benara, Mt. Gambier, South Australia, where he was born in 1886; was educated at Christ's College, Christchurch, New Zealand, and at the Dunedin (New Zealand) University, and he finally went to the London Hospital, where he obtained the M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. degrees. Prior to leaving for the war he managed Burrabogie Station, Hay, N.S.W., for himself and his brothers, T. C. Junior and W. N. C. Ellis, with whom he was in partnership in Burrabogie, Eremeran, and Tipperary Stations, New South Wales.

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On 14 November 1915, he wrote to his sister-in-law Catherine Isabella Ellis (nee Moir), “in order to brush up my work, I am doing one of the jobs at the Hospital: what drudgery, & no chance of ever getting a smack at the German boys.” On 10 August 1916 he wrote to Mrs John Robertson, having received three letters from her without reply. Fatalistic, he says that to crack the Germans we will have to put in three times the amount of fighting on the Somme, and “three times the casualties of course”. “We are still sitting in the mud to the everlasting rotten sound of firing, but it’s not too bad — and I’ve just had a few days off and lived in Amiens town, and there is every chance of us getting relieved shortly, say in a fortnight.... Personally, I’m fit & well, except one’s feet get bad so easily. ... my ideals about myself have been sorely busted during the last 15 months.” On 1 September he wrote to Mrs John again, “After my mail had been astray for a month, then put into a mud hole to soak for three.

Excerpt from Blood Sweat and Fears: Medical Practitioners and Medical Students of South Australian who Served in World War 1. Courtesy of the Authors

John Chute Ellis, was born in Mt Gambier the third and youngest son of. T. C. Ellis, of Benara, one of the early members of the old South Australian Provincial Council who was born near Adelaide on the old Port Gawler and Hummocks Station in 1848. Ellis spent his boyhood at Mount Gambier, and began his education at the Rev. Hartley Williams's Grammar school; and finished it at Christ College, Christchurch, New Zealand. He studied medicine at the Dunedin University followed by four years in London.

He and his two brothers were joint owners of Eremeran and Burrabogie stations in the Murrumbidgee District of New South Wales, his place of residence being Burrabogie.  He returned to Mt Gambier in September 1915 to see his father and be farewelled by the town and his friends before returning to England to join in the 106th Brigade Royal Field Artillery as a combatant. He had already received an appointment through The London Hospital. John Ellis died of war wounds in Belgium on the 6th June 1917 and is interred in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium.

We regret to record the fact that Lieut. John Chute Ellis, Royal Horse Artillery, of Burrabogie Station, N.S.W., the representative of a pioneer South Australian family, died of wounds in France on 6th June. He was the third son of Mr. T. C. Ellis, of Benara, Mt. Gambier, South Australia, where he was born in 1886; was educated at Christ's College, Christchurch, New Zealand, and at the Dunedin (New Zealand) University, and he finally went to the London Hospital, where he obtained the M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. degrees. Prior to leaving for the war he managed Burrabogie Station, Hay, N.S.W., for himself and his brothers, T. C. Junior and W. N. C. Ellis, with whom he was in partnership in Burrabogie, Eremeran, and Tipperary Stations, New South Wales.

Born in 1886 to a prominent Mount Gambier family of pastoralists, John Chute Ellis moved away from Mount Gambier to study.  He was managing a family grazing property in NSW prior to the War.

He enlisted in the Royal Horse Artillery in the United Kingdom where he had been studying.  He is listed on local memorials in Australia, but he did not serve in the AIF and does not therefore appear on Embarkation Rolls and other Australian source documents.  Many Australians, particularly those who had travelled to or were studying in Europe when the war broke out, enlisted direct to the British Army.

He died of wounds in Belgium in June 1917 and is interred in the very large hospital cemetry at Lijssenthoek.