Main CPGW Record
Surname: ELLIS
Forename(s): Harry
Place of Birth: Gisburn, Yorkshire
Service No: 681114
Rank: Private
Regiment / Corps / Service: Canadian Infantry
Battalion / Unit: 75th Battalion (Mississauga)
Division: 4th Canadian Division
Age: 32
Date of Death: 1917-03-26
Awards: ---
CWGC Grave / Memorial Reference: ---
CWGC Cemetery: ---
CWGC Memorial: VIMY MEMORIAL
Non-CWGC Burial: ---
Local War Memorial: GISBURN, YORKSHIRE
Additional Information:
Harry Ellis was the son of Edwin and Elizabeth Alice Ellis, née Wright. Edwin was born at Tavistock, Devon and Elizabeth at Gisburn, Yorkshire. Harry was the cousin of Private Harold Wright (26434) (q.v.).
1891 Gisburn, Yorkshire Census: Old Vicarage - Harry Ellis, aged 6 years, born Gisburn, son of Edwin E. and Elizabeth A. Ellis.
1901 Accrington, Lancashire Census: 116, Willow Lane - Harry Ellis, aged 16 years, born Gisburne, Yorkshire. [Harry was living with his uncle and aunt, Henry Tathom [sic] and Annie Caroline Wright.]
1911 Gisburn, Yorkshire Census: Old Vicarage - Harry Ellis, aged 26 years, born Gisburne, son of Edwin and Elizabeth Alice Ellis.
Harry was married to Jane Ann Shorrock in Canada. Jane was the sister of Private Richard Shorrock (13296) (q.v.) and Lieutenant James Shorrock (q.v.). Jane married William Henry Cornthwaite in 1929.
In 1921 Jane and her daughter, Nancy (born in Ontario, Canada, 1916), were living with her parents, William and Nancy Shorrock, at L. & Y. Terrace, Hellifield. Jane's daughter, Nancy, married James Albert Lee-Evans in 1941.
Canadian service records: http://www.baclac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/first-world-war-1914-1918-cef
Data Source: Craven’s Part in the Great War - original CPGW book entry
View Entry in CPGW BookEntry in West Yorkshire Pioneer Illustrated War Record:
ELLIS, H., aged 23, Canadian Contingent, Lancashire and Yorkshire Terrace, [Hellifield], killed in action, March 26, 1917.
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Private Harry ELLIS
Regiment / Corps / Service Badge: Canadian Infantry
Divisional Sign / Service Insignia: 4th Canadian Division
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Additional Photo(s) For Soldier Records
Memorial Chamber of Canada’s Parliament Buildings, Ottawa
In the Memorial Chamber are the eight ‘Books of Remembrance’ that contain the names of more than 120,000 Canadians who gave their lives in the service of Canada
Source: Canadian Virtual War Memorial (Kindly supplied by Shirley Penman, Clitheroe)
Page from the First World War ‘Book of Remembrance’: Private Harry Ellis
Source: Canadian Virtual War Memorial (Kindly supplied by Shirley Penman, Clitheroe)
View Craven Herald Articles
View Craven Herald Articles
18 May 1917
ELLIS – March 26th 1917, killed in action in France, Pte. H. Ellis, Canadian Contingent, husband of Mrs. Ellis, Lancashire and Yorkshire Terrace, Hellifield, and son of Mr. and Mrs. Ellis, Old Vicarage, Gisburn, aged 32 years.
18 May 1917
HELLIFIELD – KILLED IN ACTION
Mrs. H. Ellis, of Lancashire and Yorkshire Terrace, Hellifield, has received information that her husband, Private H. Ellis, of the Canadian Contingent, had been killed in action in France on March 26th. Pte. Ellis, who was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ellis, of Old Vicarage, Gisburn, was 32 years of age. He was formerly employed as cashier at Steiner’s Print Works, Accrington. Some four and a half years ago he went out to Canada, having accepted a post at the Bank of Hamilton, Toronto. He enlisted in the autumn of 1916, and after training in Canada came to England in November 1916, and had been in France since last Christmas. Mrs. Ellis is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. Shorrock of Lancashire and Yorkshire Terrace, and is at present residing with her parents. Much sympathy is felt for the young widow and her baby daughter.
In a letter to Mrs Ellis, dated April 29th, Lance-Corporal J.E. Wood states:– “As a friend of your late husband I feel it my duty to him and yourself to express to you my deep sympathy at your great loss. Your dear husband lost his life on the 26th of March, when out on a working party. He did not suffer in any way; he was shot in the head and died in an instant. He was taken some little distance away and buried in a grave by himself, and it will be some consolation to you to know that he had a full funeral service and that a cross marks his grave. Again, expressing the deep sympathy of myself and comrades and may God in His goodness comfort and sustain you.”
Other letters speak of the high esteem in which Pte. Ellis was held.
22 March 1918
ELLIS – In loving memory of Private Harry Ellis, Canadian Infantry, who was killed in action March 26th, 1917. – Ever remembered by his loving Wife, Mother, Sisters and all at 6 L. & Y. Terrace, Hellifield.
10 May 1918
GISBURNE
Private J. Boynton, of the Royal Warwicks, for many years gardener to Lord Ribblesdale, is officially reported missing and believed wounded since the 21st of March. His wife is a daughter of Mr. Gornal, an old estate worker, who has already lost a son in France. Mrs. Ellis, of the Old Vicarage, who has also lost a son in the war, received news last week of the death in action of her nephew, Private Harold Wright, son of Mr. Harry Wright, of Accrington, a boy who was very well known in the village. – Regimental-Sergeant-Major Fox is home on leave from his training camp at Longmoor, and Gunner Charles Waller is home from Gosport on short leave.
View West Yorkshire Pioneer Articles
View West Yorkshire Pioneer Articles
18 May 1917
ELLIS – Killed in action, March 26th, Pte. H. Ellis, of the Canadian Contingent, husband of Mrs. Ellis, of Lancashire and Yorkshire Terrace, Hellifield, and son of Mr. and Mrs. Ellis, Old Vicarage, Gisburn, aged 32.
18 May 1917
HELLIFIELD MAN FALLS
Mrs. H. Ellis, of Lancashire and Yorkshire Terrace, Hellifield, has received information that her husband, Pte. H. Ellis, of the Canadian Contingent, was killed in action in France on March 26th. Pte. Ellis, who was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ellis, of Old Vicarage, Gisburn, was 32 years of age. He was formerly employed as cashier at Steiner’s Print Works, Accrington. Some four and a half years ago he went out to Canada, having accepted a post at the Bank of Hamilton, Toronto. He enlisted in the autumn of 1915, and after training in Canada came to England in November, 1916, and had been in France since last Christmas. Mrs. Ellis is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. Shorrock, of Lancashire and Yorkshire Terrace, and is at present residing with her parents. Much sympathy is felt for the young widow and her baby daughter. In a letter to Mrs. Ellis, dated. April 29th, Lance-Corpl. J.E. Wood states:–- “As a friend of your late husband I feel it my duty to him and yourself to express to you my deep sympathy at your great loss. Your dear husband lost his life on the 26th of March, when out on a working party. He did not suffer in any way; he was shot in the head and died in an instant. He was taken some little distance away and buried in a grave by himself, and it will be some consolation to you to know that he had a full funeral service and that a cross marks his grave. Again expressing the deep sympathy of myself and comrades, and may God in His goodness comfort and sustain you.” Other letters speak of the high esteem in which Pte. Ellis was held.
28 December 1917
GISBURN
INTERMENTS – Two old residents of Gisburn were laid to rest in the churchyard during the last week. One was Mr. Edwin Ellis, of Old Vicarage, Gisburn, who was interred yesterday week, after a lingering and painful illness, aged 75. The death of his son, Harry, at Easter last, while serving in France with the Canadians, was a blow from which he never recovered. Mr. Ellis was a Devonshire man, a stonemason by trade, and he settled in Gisburn in the early seventies when the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway was extended to Hellifield, being engaged on the making of the viaduct over Stock Beck. He married Miss Wright, a member of an old Gisburn family, and for many years worked on Lord Ribblesdale’s estate. He leaves a widow and two grown-up daughters.
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