PRIVATE 47052 WILLIAM JAMES (JIMMY) ELLIS, 15th BATTALION DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY. DIED OF WOUNDS, 10th NOVEMBER 1918 AGED 22.


PRIVATE 47052 WILLIAM JAMES (JIMMY) ELLIS, 15th BATTALION DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY. DIED OF WOUNDS, 10th NOVEMBER 1918 AGED 22.




As the First World War drew to its close then so too did the life of young Jimmy Ellis, who died in the 19th Casualty Clearing Station in France the day before the Armistice was signed. His final hours were recorded by the Rev. W A Parrott, a Wesleyan Chaplain at the hospital, who sat with him as his life ebbed away. Jimmy knew that he would not survive the gangrene that infected his body and as he prayed with the chaplain, placed his life into God’s hands. His final words were for his family and his sweetheart before he peacefully died.

Back home as news of the Armistice became known Jimmy’s family would have been unaware of their son’s tragic death. Their own feelings about the end of the war would in any case have been tempered by the memories of another son, Charles, who had been killed in May 1915 whilst serving his country.

Lister Ellis and his wife Margaret were farmers who had Cragg House Farm near Addingham Moorside. They had six children including four boys of whom Jimmy, born in Ilkley in 1896, was the youngest and like his brothers he worked on the farm with his father.

Jimmy was called up by the army in May 1918 and arrived on the Western Front on 12th September, when he was posted to the 15th Battalion Durham Light Infantry. This was a hardy and resilient unit that had fought with great courage during the desperate battles of the spring and summer of 1918. Its casualty rate had been dreadful and it was a testimony to its hard fighting reputation that the High Command sought to constantly reinforce it during the offensives in the final months of the year.

In the early hours of the 7th November the 15th DLI crossed the River Sambre at Berlaimont in near to the Belgian border and advanced against the German positions around the village Aulnoye. Despite heavy and effective enemy shelling and machine gun fire the battalion pressed on towards their next objective. The failure of a neighbouring unit slowed progress and German counter attack was resoundingly beaten off, before the battalion arrived at Limont at about 5pm. It was the battalions final attack of the war but it had come at a high price with 116 casualties including Jimmy Ellis who was badly wounded.

Today Private Jimmy Ellis lies in the British Military Cemetery at Caudry, buried by the Rev. Parrott as the Armistice came into effect, and he is remembered with pride on our war memorial in Ilkley.







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