BORN HULL 1892. ONLY SON OF EDITH JANE ELLIS & THE LATE HAROLD THOMAS ELLIS, OF 16 WELLESLEY AVENUE, BEVERLEY ROAD, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESS).
HE WAS EDUCATED AT FULNICH, NEAR LEEDS AND KOENIGSFELD, NEAR BADEN, GERMANY. LEAVING SCHOOL, HE BECAME A PUPIL OF MESSRS, WELLSTED-DOSSRS, CIVIL ENGINEERS. HE WORKED FOR A FIRM IN COLYWYN BAY AND FOR THE NORTH EASTERN RAILWAYS.
HE ENLISTED IN THE “HULL PALS” IN 1915. HE WAS OFFERED A COMMISSION IN 1915 AND AGAIN IN 1917 AND WAS ABOUT TO TAKE ONE, AT THE TIME WHEN HE WAS WOUNDED. HE WAS STRUCK BY A MACHINE GUN BULLET, IN THE THIGH, ON 06/09/1918, NEAR SOYER FARM, ARMENTIERES, FRANCE. AFTER RECEIVING FIRST AID HE WAS LEFT IN A SHELL HOLE FOR SAFETY. THE STRECHER BEARERS SENT FOR HIM, FAILED TO BRING HIM IN AND IT WAS FEARED THAT HE DIED THERE. IT WAS THOUGHT THAT HE MIGHT HAD BEEN BROUGHT IN BY THE 10TH EAST YORKSHIRES, BUT THERE WAS NO TRACE OF HIM. HIS DEATH IS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, 09/10/1918. HDM, 22/08/1919. HE LEFT £214 TO MOTHER, EDITH JANE ELLIS, IN HIS WILL.
HIS MOTHER MRS ELLIS, ERRECTED A STAINED GLASS WINDOW AT ST JOHNS CHURCH, NEWLAND, IN MEMORY OF HER ONLY SON ARTHUR WHO WAS KILLED NEAR ARMENTIERS. THE WINDOW DEPICTS ‘THE MIRACLE OF THE RAISING OF THE WIDOWS ONLY SON.’ SHE ALSO OFFERED A REWARD FOR ANY INFORMATION CONCERNING HIM.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. CPL ARTHUR PEARSON ELLIS 24878. Born in 1892, Arthur was the only child of Harold and Edith Ellis of 16 Wellesley Avenue, Hull. A Civil Engineer by trade, he enlisted in December 1915 just ahead of the dreaded Conscription Bill becoming law early in 1916. He joined the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, 2nd Hull Pals, but spent his first few months in Withernsea where he emerged in May 1917 a qualified 1st Class Signaller. Arthur was listed as missing on 6th September 1918 during the attack on Soyer Farm. His father had died some years before the war and records show his mother went to every length possible to seek out news of her son. First she wrote requesting a postal address for a Private Isaac, whom she had been told lived in Cardiff: “I am told he is the man who bound up the wounds of my son…..who is reported wounded and missing on that date.”
Then, well after the war, she wrote to the Army again requesting information on a ‘B’ Company Sergeant who was taken prisoner that day: “I have today been told that he may be able to give me some information about my missing son.” Heartbreaking. Alas, no news was ever forthcoming and no trace of Edith Ellis’s only child was ever found. His name is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial; he was 26 years old.
