ELLISON, Gilbert Townsend
Service Number: | 6504 |
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Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
Last Rank: | Private |
Last Unit: | 10th Infantry Battalion |
Born: | Glen Osmond, South Australia, 14 October 1881 |
Home Town: | Glen Osmond, Burnside, South Australia |
Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
Occupation: | Contractor |
Died: | Hollywood Hospital, Nedlands, West Australia, 19 August 1962, aged 80 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
Cemetery: |
Karrakatta Cemetery & Crematorium, Western Australia |
Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
23 Oct 1916: | Involvement Private, 6504, 10th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Port Melbourne embarkation_ship_number: A16 public_note: '' | |
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23 Oct 1916: | Embarked Private, 6504, 10th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Port Melbourne, Adelaide | |
Date unknown: | Wounded 6504, 10th Infantry Battalion |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Allen Hancock
Gilbert Townsend Ellison was born in Glen Osmond South Australia on 14 October 1881, the eighth of eleven children of James Ellison and Georgina Sophia Townsend. His grandfather, Samuel Ellison, had arrived in the colony in 1840 and had established a dairy farm in the area known as Ellison’s Gully off Brownhill Creek. Gilbert’s father had been employed on the construction of the northern end of the Overland Telegraph during 1871-1872.
Around 1904 Gilbert travelled to Western Australia with his three older brothers, Fred (James Frederick), Albert and Bill, and his younger brother Frank, where they worked as contractors on government well projects. The two older brothers are credited with the construction of the Billum Billum or Monk’s Well at Dalwallinu, a town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, located 248 km from Perth via the Great Northern Highway. The well still exists covered now by a galvanised iron shed.
The electoral roll for 1912 for the Division of Swan shows:
* Ellison, Albert, Nugadong, Gunyidi, farmer
* Ellison, Frank, Nugadong, Gunyidi, contractor
* Ellison, Frederick James, Merkanooka, Mingenew, miner
* Ellison, William Ernest, Morowa, Mingenew, teamster
* Ellison, Gilbert, Beverley, contractor
Following the murder of his brother Bill, Gilbert returned to Adelaide and while there he enlisted in the AIF on 14 August 1916. At the time of his enlistment he was 5 feet 8¼ inches tall, weighed 176 pounds and had grey eyes, fair hair but going bald and a fair complexion.
Gilbert was appointed to the 21st Reinforcements of the 10th Battalion on 18 October 1916 in Mitcham, South Australia. He embarked for active service on the HMAT Port Melbourne on 23 October 1916 and disembarked in Devonport on 28 December. After further training in England he proceeded to France on 5 April 1917.
Ten days after arriving in France, on 15 April 1917 the battalion was in the front-line trenches on the Morchies Beaumetz Line near Lagnicourt when the Germans began their attack on the town, Unternehmen Sturmbock [Operation Battering Ram). Four German divisions conducted a spoiling attack on the positions of the 1st Anzac Corps of the British Fifth Army. The attack was intended to delay the advance of the Fifth Army towards the Hindenburg Line, cause as many casualties and destroy as much equipment, particularly artillery, as possible. The Fifth Army was recovering from the First attack on Bullecourt (11 April) and preparing for the Battle of Bullecourt 3–17 May 1917, a bigger effort.
The attack by two divisions of Gruppe Quéant and two divisions of Gruppe Cambrai to the south, fell on the positions of the 1st Australian Division and 2nd Australian Division. The Australians repulsed the attacks, except at Lagnicourt, where German troops broke in, took prisoners, destroyed six artillery pieces, and recovered confidential documents.
During the attack, Gilbert Ellison received a serious wound to his left thigh caused by an explosive bullet and he was also gassed. He was admitted to the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance at Beugny and then transferred to the British 9 Casualty Clearing Station. He was admitted to the British 12 General Hospital at Rouen on 17 April by which time his wound was going septic. After an X-Ray, the wound was operated on in France on 19 April 1917 with the medical officer considering it a bad case. After a month of treatment in France, he was repatriated by hospital ship to England where he received further treatment at the 2nd Southern General Hospital at Bristol.
Gilbert embarked from England on the HMAT Suevic, disembarking in Melbourne on 18 November 1917. He was discharged from the AIF as being medically unfit for service on 4 December 1917. Following his return, he resided on Tutt Avenue in the Adelaide suburb of Kingswood.
When the war ended Gilbert returned to Western Australia and worked as a contractor at Gunyidi living with his eldest brother Albert. He married Annie Irene Spicer at Moora in 1919 and in 1920 he took up his own farm at Gunyidi. The Ellisons left their farm in 1927 and moved to 185 Beaufort Street, North Perth and at 36 Brookman Street in North Perth.
Gilbert died on 9 August 1962 at Hollywood Hospital, Nedlands, West Australia and is buried at Karrakatta Cemetery. Father of Gladys, Dorothy, Allen, Constance, Nellie, Hilda and Joyce.