Pte 31086 James Anwyl Ellis

• Age: 19
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Monday 9th April 1917
• Commemorated at: Arras Memorial
  Panel Ref: Bay 3

James Anwyl Ellis was born in 1897 in Liverpool, and was the son of  John Ellis and his wife Catherine (nee Lewis) who were married 06th April 1885 at St Mary’s Kirkdale.

The 1901 Census finds the family living at 55 Pulford Street, Everton. Father John is aged 39, a metal machinist, mother Catherine is 39, children, Elizabeth 13, George 11, Catherine 8, Margaret 5 and James 3 (all born Liverpool). Also staying is Catherine's widowed mother Elizabeth Lloyd 72  b.N.Wales.  

By the time of the 1911 Census the family have moved to 7 Adelaide Street, Poulton, Wallasey.

Father John is aged 49, a metal machinist, mother Catherine is 49, they have been married for 25 years, have had 8 children of which 3 had died. Their children are, Elizabeth Anwyl 23, George 21 a clerk, Catherine 18 shop assistant, Margaret 15 shop assistant, and James Anwyl 13 at school.

James was serving in the 17^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 31086 when he was killed in action on the 9^th April 1917, aged 19, during the Battle of Arras. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, France.

17^th,  19^th & 20th  Battalion at the  Battle of Arras 09th April 1917

Everard Wyrall records the events of the day  in Volume 2 of his History of the King's Regiment (Liverpool).

The 89^th Brigade formed up for the attack with the 19^th King's on the right and the 20^th King’s on the left. The 17^th King’s supplied the “mopping up" parties and he 2nd Bedfords were in close support.

It was just after 3pm when the advance began “According to scheduled time the waves advanced in good style and with determination; everyone was cheerful and in the best of spirits”

That advance is described by others as magnificent. From the OP’s the observing officers saw a wonderful sight – long lines of men advancing steadily up a long and gradual slope towards the enemy’ front line. Then suddenly they disappeared. The observers quite pardonably, imagined that the German front line had fallen into the hands of the assaulting troops and that the latter were on the way to the enemy’s support line. Alas something very different had happened. When the advancing troops had reached the summit of the long slope up which they advanced the ground suddenly dipped before the German front line , and when the observing officers thought they  were already in the Bosche lines they had not, as a matter of fact, even reached the wire. What the observers took to be the front line was really the support line; the front line could not be seen  - it lay just behind the crest of that slight rise in the ground.

The attacking waves of the 19^th King’s got within 100 yards of the German wire but were then held up. They were faced by three belts of entanglements, practically untouched by our artillery, and nothing could be done but to dig in or else take shelter in the many shell- shell-with which “No Man’s Land" was pitted. By this time the battalion’s losses were very heavy, and when darkness fell “A" and “B" Companies (about 140 in all) lay in shell-holes, two or three hundred yards north east of St. Martin, but just south of the Cojeul River, and “C" and “D" Companies (140 all ranks) were along the river bank, but on the northern side about 150 yards north east of St. Martin.

The first waves of the 20^th King’ advanced at 3.7pm. At 4pm Lieut Beaumont, commanding “A" Company, reported that he had had some forty casualties in passing through the enemy’s barrage. The next message, timed 4.40pm, stated that the position of the battalion at that period was on a crest in front of the enemy’s wire and about 100 yards from it. On the right the 21^st Division was observed to have penetrated the enemy’s front line, but in the left the right Battalion of the 21^st Brigade (the Wilts) was on the St. Martin- Neuville Vitasse road; the left flank of the 20^th King's was, therefore, “ in the air”.

Urgent messages were sent up from Battalion Headquarters to “push on, keeping in touch with right” But little else could be accomplished until those formidable belts of wire had been cut sufficiently to allow the rapid passage of the attacking troops, headed by their bombers.

At 9:30 that night 89^th Brigade Headquarters ordered both the 19^th and 20^th Battalions to withdraw, the former to the two sunken roads running south east from St. Martin, the latter to north west of St. Martin; the guns had been ordered to cut the enemy’s wire during the night in preparation for another attack during the 10^th April.

Of the 17^th King’s  - the “moppers up" – there is little to relate. There was nothing to “mop up" so that they did not function. Yet they had shared all the perils of the advance, and when  after they had fallen back and at midnight held the following positions, “B", “C", and “D" Companies in and around the sunken road north of Boiry-Becquerelle and “A" Company in trenches west of Henin, they lost 2 officers and 16 other ranks killed, and 3 officers and 48 other ranks wounded.

He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, France.

The ARRAS MEMORIAL commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the Advance to Victory, and have no known grave. The most conspicuous events of this period were the Arras offensive of April-May 1917, and the German attack in the spring of 1918. Canadian and Australian servicemen killed in these operations are commemorated by memorials at Vimy and Villers-Bretonneux. A separate memorial remembers those killed in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. Both cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with sculpture by Sir William Reid Dick. The memorial was unveiled by Lord Trenchard, Marshal of the Royal Air Force on the 31 July 1932 (originally it had been scheduled for 15 May, but due to the sudden death of French President Doumer, as a mark of respect, the ceremony was postponed until July).

James' death was reported in the Daily Post on 27th April 1917:

Roll of Honour – Wallasey

Pte J.A. Ellis (KLR) was killed in action on April 9.  His parents live at 7 Adelaide Street, Poulton. 

Further details were provided in the Wallasey News on 28th April 1917:

Pte. J A ELLIS

The brave young soldier was educated at Poulton School and was a Sunday School helper at the Primitive Methodist Church, Seacombe. He was Staff Sergt. of the 1st Wallasey Boys' Brigade, a keen footballer, and was employed with Messrs. Thomas Collier and Co. Ltd. Manchester, warehouseman (Liverpool Depot). He was the youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. John Ellis 7 Adelaide-street, Poulton.     

Birkenhead News 28th April 1917

POULTON SOLDIER KILLED

News has been received that Pte. James Anwyl Ellis, of the King's Liverpool Regt. was killed in action on the 9th of April.

The Rev. A. L. Preston, C.F., writes:- "Dear Mr. Ellis.—l have to send you the very bad news that your son, Pte. J. A. Ellis, was killed in action on April 9th in the great advance, and I want just to say how very sorry we are to lose him. He has been reverently buried, and a cross bearing his name, rank, and regiment will always mark his grave."

The brave young soldier was educated at Poulton School and was a Sunday School helper at the Primitive Methodist, Seacombe. He was Staff Sergt. of the 1st Wallasey Boys' Brigade, a keen footballer, and was employed with Messrs. Thomas Collier and Co. Ltd., Manchester, (Liverpool depot). He was the youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. John Ellis, 7, Adelside Street, Poulton.

Liverpool Echo 14th March 1918

ELLIS - March 12, at 7 Adelaide Street, Poulton, JOHN, the dearly loved husband of Kate Ellis. Service in Poulton Road Primitive Methodist Church on Saturday next at 12:30 p.m. Internment at Rake Lane Cemetery.

Liverpool Echo 8th July 1918

ELLIS - In loving 21st Birthday remembrance of Private JAMES ANWYL, K.L.R., youngest son of Catherine and the late John Ellis, killed in action, April 9, 1917. Deeply mourned by Mother, Brother and Sister.

ELLIS - In sacred 21st Birthday remembrance of our dear friend JIM, killed in action, Easter Monday 1917. Fondly remembered by all at 17 Stirling Street, Poulton

James is also commemorated on the following Memorials:

Wallasey Civic (Hospital) Wallasey Roll of Honour

Oxton Road Methodist Church, Wallasey

St Lukes, Poulton. 

Sister Catherine died on 28th Oct 1917 aged 25 (Liverpool Echo).

Soldiers Effects and Pension to mother Catherine.

Father John died on 12th March 1918 at home aged 56

Mother died in 1926 aged 65.

We currently have no further information on James Anwyl Ellis, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.

Grateful thanks are extended to Joe Devereux for his permission to use the photograph now shon on this site.