Places |
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Accession Number | AWM2017.1.169 |
Collection type | Film |
Object type | Last Post film |
Physical description | 16:9 |
Maker |
Australian War Memorial |
Place made | Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Campbell |
Date made | 18 June 2017 |
Access | Open |
Conflict |
First World War, 1914-1918 |
Copyright |
Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial![]() |
Copying Provisions | Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction. |
The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1541) Private Clarence Millington Ellis, 8th Battalion, AIF, First World War.
The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Dennis Stockman, the story for this day was on (1541) Private Clarence Millington Ellis, 8th Battalion, AIF, First World War.
Film order form1541 Private Clarence Millington Ellis, 8th Battalion
DOW 22 April 1917
Story delivered 18 June 2017
Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Clarence Ellis.
Popularly known as “Clarrie”, Clarence Millington Ellis was born in Eden, New South Wales, in 1893, one of six sons and two daughters born to Joseph and Mary Ann Ellis. When he was a boy, his family moved to Candelo, where he grew up and attended the local state school. He was known as “a good footballer and an upstanding manly fellow in every respect”. Clarence went on to become a blacksmith. In early 1911 he left the family home to work the mines at Catherine Hill Bay. Nearly two years later he was in Melbourne working as a carpenter with his brother, Theo.
Clarence Ellis enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at Melbourne in late 1914. He underwent a brief period of training in Australia before leaving for active service overseas with the second contingent. Private Ellis arrived on Gallipoli in early May 1915, later writing home that he was “happy and lousy”. In fact, his health suffered badly during his time on the peninsula, and he spent several periods in hospital with dysentery. He also wrote home about an incident which he described in a letter to his mother, writing:
I was blown out of a trench by a big shell and my nerves are shook up a little; but I will soon get over that. If you could have seen me up in the air you would have thought I would have been shook out for good.
If this happened, Ellis managed not to be wounded. He suffered from poor military discipline, and had a number of charges recorded against his name for absence and insolence.
Private Ellis was affected by his time on Gallipoli, writing:
to hear the well-known cry for stretcher bearers, and to hear the boys saying “I’m done, Boys!” – it seems hard when you see them lying dead and to think they have left Australia, no one knowing how brave they were. It is harder still when it is one of your own mates. After one charge we had, I lost all my mates and that night when I lay down to sleep – I was alone. I waited all night for them, but they were gone.
While on Gallipoli, Ellis became close mates with Private Tom Tyrer, another soldier with questionable military discipline. The pair spent various periods of time in hospital in Egypt before being sent to France to fight on the Western Front. Private Ellis had one more period of being absent without leave before his battalion was committed to the fierce fighting around the French village of Pozières.
On 5 August 1916 Ellis was wounded by a bomb blast to the head and legs. His wounds were slight, and he returned to active duty. From that point on, his disciplinary issues seem to have stopped, and his record was clear. He remained with the battalion throughout the severe winter of 1916 as it rotated in and out of the front line.
In early 1917 the 8th Battalion followed up the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. On 22 April a large party of the 8th Battalion attacked German positions near the French village of Lagnicourt. Although the Germans put up a fierce defence, the men of the 8th Battalion forced their way into their strongpoint, killing a number of Germans and taking three prisoner. Later that night heavy German artillery fire forced the surviving Australian garrison in the strongpoint back to their original lines. Private Ellis never returned.
Private Tom Tyrer wrote to Mrs Ellis in Australia to tell her what happened to her son. He wrote:
I am broken hearted about poor Clarrie. He was shot in the head whilst we were attacking. The only words he said were, ‘I am hit!’ and he died at the clearing station … we were wrapped up in each other. I can tell you, you have my deepest sympathy. You have the proud satisfaction of knowing that he was a man and was well liked, as he was always cheerful, which went a long way with me. I never had another mate, so you can imagine how lonely I feel … I would sooner it had been me, for there is no one to mourn over me.
In Australia Private Ellis’s death was reported in the local papers with the words, “he was just the type of man who could be counted upon in the grim business he so willing undertook for his country … his sacrifice has made him immortal.”
Private Clarence Ellis was buried in the Red Cross Corner Cemetery in Beugny. He was 23 years old.
Clarence Ellis’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 Australians who died while serving in the First World War.
This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Clarence Millington Ellis, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.
Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section
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Video of The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1541) Private Clarence Millington Ellis, 8th Battalion, AIF, First World War. (video)
Related information
Conflicts
Places
- Africa: Egypt
- Europe: France, Nord Pas de Calais, Pas de Calais, Beugny, Red Cross Corner Cemetery
- Europe: France, Picardie, Somme, Albert Bapaume Area, Pozieres Area, Pozieres
- Europe: France, Picardie, Somme, Bapaume Cambrai Area, Lagnicourt
- Middle East: Ottoman Empire, Turkey, Dardanelles, Gallipoli