Born Sheffield, Yorkshire, 10 Jan 1877. Husband of Margaret Hall, of 6. Paradise Court, Commercial Road, Portsmouth & 90, Canning Street, Hull. he had four children, Rose Ann, Alice Mary, Louisa and William James, born between 1910-1916.
served as Deck Hand in the Royal Naval Reserve, H.M. Trawler “Towhee.” Killed by a mine explosion, on 15/06/1917, aged 40. He is commemorated on the Chatham Naval memorial, Kent. His widow was awarded a weekly war pension of 28/6 shillings on 20 Dec 1917.
The H.M. Trawler “Towhee” was hired by the Royal Navy for service as a minesweeper. The armed ship was sunk without trace whilst on escort duty in the English Channel on 15 June 1917. She went down with the loss of all 11 hands. The skipper of HMT “Towhee” was Frederick Thomas Ellison, who was the older brother of George Edwin Ellison, the last British soldier to die in battle during the first world war and is buried at the cemetery of St Symphorien, on the outskirts of the Belgian city of Mons. His grave faces the grave of John Parr who was the first British soldier to die in battle during the first world war.
