Name
Ellis Smith
1896
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
15/04/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
28189
Border Regiment
11th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 6 A and 7 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing on the Somme, France.
UK & Other Memorials
Barley Village Memorial, St Margaret's Church Memorial, Barley
Pre War
Ellis SMITH was born in Great Chishill, Cambridgeshire in 1896, son of George Smith a Farm Labourer and Mary Jane Smith (nee Holland). His parents married on 28th July 1884, in Melbourn, Herts, Mary was Georges second wife. They went on to have nine children.
1901 Census records Ellis aged 5, living with his parents, four sisters, two brothers James & William, in Dolphin Lane, Melbourn, Herts.
1911 Census, Ellis aged 14, is living with his parents, sisters Gladys (18) and Mary (13), at Horseshoe Farm, London Road, Barley, Herts. The family had a boarder Arthur Clements a Farm Labourer.
Wartime Service
Ellis enlisted at Bedford, Beds, posted to the (Duke of Cambridges Own) Middlesex Regiment and issued with the service No. 6218, later transferred to the 11th Battalion, Boarder Regiment, with the service No. 28189.
He was Killed in Action on 15th April 1917, aged 20, possible during the Battle of the Scarpe, he has no known grave, he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing on the Somme, France. Pier and Face 6A. & 7C.
Additional Information
His mother Mary was awarded a dependents pension of 10/- a week from 3rd March 1918 to 8th April 1919, and his effects of £2-19s-06d, pay owing and his war gratuity of £4.
The Soldiers Died In The Great War database records that he was born in Shapeston, Cambridgeshire, and was living in Royston, Herts(*1), when he enlisted in Bedford.
Note. No Village or Town by the name of Shapeston in Cambridgeshire was found.
*1 It seems likely that Royston was given because it was the nearest large town or because it was the postal town for the village of Barley.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Paul Johnson, Adrian Pitts
