Pte 49220 Ellis Bailey

Ellis was born on 28th May 1881 at 12 Bocking, York Cross Roads, Bingley, Yorkshire to, Bingley born stone quarry mason, George Bailey and his Lancaster born wife Mary (nee Edmondson). They were married on 01st June 1857 in Bingley and had 13 children, 8 girls and 5 boys of which Ellis was their 13th and last child born in 1881. 

His Father George aged 48 died in1885 when Ellis was only 4 years old with 12 older siblings. 

 

The 1891 Census still at 12 Bocking, Bingley shows  Ellis as a 9 year old scholar living with his widowed mother and siblings 

 

The 1901 Census shows 19 year old Ellis now a shoemaker living at 129 Keighley Road, Haworth with his widowed mother and siblings.

 

In 1902 his mother died aged 64

 

On 30 May 1903 aged 22 he married Martha Alice Clark in Keighley. They have 3 girls, the first daughter, Violet was born 27 October 1903 and was baptized at St John's Ingrow and Haworth. The register shows him as a butcher living at 11 Bracken Street, Ingrow. On 3rd March 1907 his second Daughter Lily is born.

 

The 1911 Census shows the family living at 132 Westminster Road, Morecambe and his occupation is described as a tram conductor. 

 

On 7 Dec 1913 his third daughter Elsie Marguerite is born. 

 

Ellis enlisted in Morecambe joining the Royal Lancaster Regt as Pte. 24117, He was subsequently transferred and was serving in B’ Company, 7th Platoon, of the 17^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 49220 when he was killed in action on the 24^th March, 1918, during the German Spring Offensive. He was aged 36. Ellis was originally declared Wounded and Missing on 24th March 1918.  

"The 17th & 18th King's of the 30th Division where in the neighbourhood of Verlaines on 24th March 1918 ...continuous Enemy Shell Fire and Machine Gun fire from 1.a.m the night of 23/24 th.  Dawn broke as usual with Mist covering the ground. At 8 a.m the Enemy's guns shelled the front branches and shortly afterwards the Germans came on in strength. Step by Step disputing almost every yard of ground the Division fell back fighting all the way over the four miles of country to the Canal du Nord.  Officers and men were by now absolutely exhausted, for they had been fighting continuously for three days and nights."

His body was not recovered from the battlefield or was subsequently lost and he is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial in France. 

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930. 

His Army Pay of £15:2s:2d including a £10 War Gratuity is sent to his widow Martha on 31 May 1919 at 6 Brighton Terrace, Morecambe. Pension payments were made in respect of the 3 children until their 16th birthday.