Baildon's First DCM Recipient
2474 Corporal (Acting Serjeant) William Ellison, 1/6th
Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment
On 21st January 1916, the Shipley Times and Express
printed the story of the first award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal to a
soldier from Baildon, Corporal William Ellison of Long Royd.[i]
William Ellison was the son of Grimshaw and Mary Alice
Ellison. He was born at home in 3 Mornington Villas, Manningham, Bradford on 3rd
March 1894.[ii]
Grimshaw Ellison was a Worsted Manufacturer, and principle partner in the
company bearing his name. He died aboard the SS Baltic on 28th
September 1904 while he and his wife were sailing to New York.[iii]
His body was brought home and the funeral was held at St John the Evangelist Church
in Baildon.
As well as William, Grimshaw and Mary had a daughter and a
son, both younger than William. Mary was born in 1897, and Geoffrey followed in
1899.[iv]
William and Geoffrey Ellison were both educated at Sedbergh
School in what is now Cumbria. Both boys were boarders in Hart House.[v]
After he’d left school, William Ellison, like his late father, went into the textiles
industry when he went to work for Messers F Bland and Son in Bradford,
although, instead of his work being in Worsted it was in the woollen trade.
Away from work, he was a prominent member of the Baildon
Rugby Football Club, where he was the Club Secretary. He had been picked to
play as captain during the 1914 – 1915 season[vi],
but he enlisted in the 6th Battalion, the West Yorkshire Regiment on
18th September 1914, shortly after war was declared.[vii]
William’s brother, Geoffrey Walker Ellison, also served during the Great War.
He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery,
serving in France from 26th November 1917.[viii]
William Ellison went to France with his battalion, 1/6th
Bn, West Yorkshire Regiment on 15th April 1915. He had been promoted
Corporal and, later, was given the acting rank of Serjeant while in charge of
the Battalion Bombers (a specialist sub-unit of men trained in the use of hand
grenades).[ix][x]
During mid-July 1915, he received his first wound, which was described as a
minor wound to the neck. After treatment and a week’s absence while he
convalesced in a rest camp, he returned to the battalion.[xi]
On 30th August, Serjeant Ellison was on duty with
a listening patrol when he received wounds from a grenade. He was wounded nine
times, but according to the Shipley Times and Express, none of them was in ‘a
vital part’.[xii]
It appears that his wounds were more serious than the newspaper report makes
them seem, because it needed two men who went out from the front-line trench to
bring the stricken Sjt Ellison back to the comparative safety of Battalion’s
line.[xiii]
For his valuable work and devotion to duty, Serjeant Ellison was awarded the
Distinguished Conduct Medal.
The award was first published in the London Gazette on 11th
January 1916, but the citation was not printed until the issue released on 10th
March. It read as follows:
“For conspicuous gallantry in
charge of bombers. He always volunteered for any dangerous work, and was
wounded, but returned to his company after a few weeks. When the company took
over a new line, he immediately went out to find a listening hole, was bombed
and wounded in nine places, but kept his head, and duly reported to the company
officer when brought in.”[xiv]
 |
| A Distinguished Conduct Medal similar to that awarded to Sjt Ellison |
The men who rescued Serjeant Ellison were wounded in their
effort to get him back to safety. Both were awarded the DCM for their work that
night. They were 2315 Pte Walter Francis, and 1165 L/Cpl Austin Smith. The men’s shared
DCM citations differed only in the mention of their rank and were published in
the London Gazette on 8th October 1915. That for L/Cpl Smith read as
follows:
“For conspicuous gallantry on the
night of the 30th-31st August 1915, near Ypres. A Non-Commissioned Officer had
been wounded while on listening patrol. His companion returned for help, and
Lance Corporal Smith and another man went out to bring him in. Whilst binding
up the wound, both were wounded by a bomb, but they proceeded to carry the
wounded man in, and, although he also was again wounded, they stuck to him, and
only handed him over to the stretcher-bearers on the order of an Officer. Their
devotion to duty was most marked.”[xv]
Serjeant Ellison was evacuated to England and eventually
received treatment at a surgical hospital in Norwich, where he remained until
30th December 1915, when he moved to a convalescent hospital. While
he was at the surgical hospital, he learned that his best friend and Baildon
RFC teammate, 2220 Private John Theodore Cameron Margetts, of the same
battalion, and the son of a former vicar of Baildon, had died of wounds on 11th
December 1915.[xvi] Cameron
Margetts is now buried in Hospital Farm Cemetery, which was used by 49th
Division as part of their medical and evacuation chain.[xvii]
 |
| The grave of Cameron Margetts at Hospital Farm Cemetery, west of Ieper, in Belgium |
Evidently the wounds that William Ellison had received were
too serious for him to recover from sufficiently to allow him to return to duty
with the Army, and he was discharged as a result on 28thJune 1916.
He received the Silver War Badge as well as the Distinguished Conduct Medal and a
1914 – 15 Star Trio of medals for his service.[xviii]
[xix]
In 1919, William Ellison married Florence Margaret Hines[xx],
the younger daughter of Frances and the late William Hines, of Baildon.[xxi]
The couple had two children together, Philip, born in 1920, and Mary, who followed
in 1924.[xxii]
[xxiii]
William Ellison was assessed as being 20% disabled due to
his wounds and was awarded a pension of 8 shillings and 8 pence per week for
life.[xxiv]
He went back to his pre-war profession in the wool trade, but retired early,
presumably due to the wounds he had received in the war.
The family moved to Greengate House, in Levens, near Kendal
in Cumbria. During the Second World War, William Ellison became an ARP Warden.[xxv]
 |
| An Air Raid Precautions Warden's Lapel Badge as issued to Male Wardens |
[i]
Shipley Times and Express, 21st January 1916
[ii]
Baptism Records, St John the Evangelist Church, Baildon 1894
[iii]
Yorkshire Evening Post, 11th November 1904
[iv] 1901
England Census, RG13 4067/32/25
[v]
1911 England Census, RG14 25704
[vi]
Shipley Times and Express, 21st January 1916
[vii]
Bradford Great War Roll of Honour
[viii]
British Army WW1 Medal Index Cards
[ix]
WO 329/901
[x]
London Gazette, Issue 29503, 10th March 1916
[xi]
Shipley Times and Express, 21st January 1916
[xii]
Shipley Times and Express, 21st January 1916
[xiii]
London Gazette, Issue 29321, 8th October 1915
[xiv]
London Gazette, Issue 29503, 10th March 1916
[xv]
London Gazette, Issue 29321, 8th October 1915
[xvi]
Shipley Times and Express, 21st January 1916
[xvii]
CWGC
[xviii]
Silver War Badge Roll, WO 329/2958-3255
[xix] WO
329/2658
[xx]
Civil Registration Marriage Index 1919 Q2, Wharfedale 9a 451
[xxi]
1901 England Census, RG13 4067/36/33
[xxii]
Civil Registration Birth Index 1920 Q4, Wharfedale 9a 257
[xxiii]
Civil Registration Birth Index 1924 Q2, Wharfedale 9a 247
[xxiv]
Pension Ledger Cards – Western Front Association – 277/04ME
[xxv]
1939 Register RG 101/3124B
[xxvi]
Civil Registration Death Index 1964 Q1, Westmorland S. 1b 620
[xxvii]
Civil Registration Death Index 1971 Q4, Westmorland S. 1b 1487
Picture Credit: Cpl W Ellison – Shipley Times and Express,
21st January 1916
Other Images © Nigel Marshall
Comments
Post a Comment