Charles Ellis
Private 3/16827 North Staffordshire Regiment 3
rd
battalion
killed in action 26
th
January 1917 in Basra
Buried in Amara War Cemetery, Iraq
Charles Ellis was the son of Robert Ellis and Martha Anne née Walker. His mother was
the daughter of Ann Walker, the daughter of Charles and Sarah Walker who lived most of
their lives in Woodseaves, but also in Gnosall parish.
Charles was called up and enlisted with the North Staffordshire Regiment (private
3/16827) in Stafford on the 10
th
February 1915. His address at that time was Knightley
Eves and he was working as a ‘farm servant’.
Charles was posted from North Staffordshire 3
rd
battalion to the 7
th
on the 15
th
August
1915, becoming part of the 13
th
Division (a Division of volunteers) part of the 39
th
Infantry
Brigade, and sent to Gallipoli.
On the 30
th
October 1915 Charles was admitted to the field hospital with dysentery. He
survived and sailed to join the 13
th
Division Base in Sidi Bishr, Alexandria, Egypt (to assist
in the Palestine Campaign (fighting for the Sinai Peninsula against the Ottoman Empire
and Germany) and to regroup in readiness for further action in Mesopotamia) arriving on
the 18
th
February 1916.
The regiment then embarked from Port Said on the 21
st
March 1916, arriving in Basra on
the 6
th
April 1916. Charles then rejoined his unit in the field on the 24
th
April.
He was admitted to the field hospital again on the 19
th
September and transferred to the
hospital at Amara, from which he was discharged on the 14
th
October and rejoined his
battalion in Basra on New Year’s Eve 1916-17.
Just under a month later, on the 26
th
January 1917, Charles Ellis was killed in action.
He is buried in Amara War Cemetery, Iraq