ELLIS, Ronald Charles
| Service Number: | 3057 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Unit: | 17th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Devonport, Tasmania, Australia, 14 June 1896 |
| Home Town: | Enmore, Inner West Sydney, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Plasterer |
| Died: | Natural Causes, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia , 6 July 1976, aged 80 years |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 20 Dec 1915: | Involvement 3057, 17th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '12' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Suevic embarkation_ship_number: A29 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Dec 1915: | Embarked 3057, 17th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Suevic, Sydney |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Greg Ellis
Ronald Charles Ellis was the youngest of three brothers who enlisted in the 1st AIF in 1915. Born on 14 June 1896, Ronnie was the fourth of six children to Ethelbert James Ellis and Alice Maud Foster.
Ronnie was the second of the brothers to enlist. His older brother by three years, Ethelbert James (jnr) had enlisted on 15 January 1915. Ronnie, aged 19, enlisted on 15 September 1915 (he had just turned 19 but said he was 21 years and 2 months). Later that year, on 6 December, middle brother, William George (Bill), would enlist.
Originally assigned to the 17th Infantry Battalion in France, Ronnie is in hospital on 3 February to 18 March 1916, when he is discharged to return to his unit. That unit appears to have been reassigned as the 55th Battalion, on 16 February, while he was in hospital. (His reasons for being in hospital may have been related to a minor gunshot wound to the foot but this is uncertain. An internal army memo appears certain a missing soldier who suffered a minor foot wound was Private R.C. Ellis of the 55th, but the dates in the correspondence don't square with what is known subsequently; so either the wounded soldier was not him, or the recollection of the dates in the correspondence is mistaken. See Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files, 1914-18 War 1DRL/0428).
His official record notes that he was missing in France and then on the same date declared a prisoner of war. This may be a later administrative tidying-up as it doesn't appear to square with more detailed correspondence in 1917 which specifies that he was captured by the Germans on 19-20 July 1916 at Fleurbaix. (Ref. Red Cross records above).
In either event, Ronnie would spend the rest of the war as a PoW. After two and a half years in West Germany, he embarked to England on 13 December 1918 and returned to Australia in April 1919 and was discharged 'Medic invalid' in July that year. Ronnie was reunited with his two elder brothers after the war.
In November 1919, he married Ivy Gladys Smith and they had four children: Esme, Ronald, Noeleen and Alan. Sadly, Ronald (jnr) born in 1922, a Flight Sargeant, would die in an RAAF training accident at the military airbase in Banff Scotland in March 1944.
Ronnie's wife of 49 years died in 1968, while Ronnie would live to see his 80th birthday. He died in on 6 July 1976.