Ellsworth, Norman Griffiths (Battery Sergeant Major, d.1917)

Collection relating to the First World War service of 843 Battery Sergeant Major Norman Griffiths Ellsworth, 102 Howitzer Battery (2 Field Artillery Brigade), Egypt, Gallipoli, France and Belgium, 1914-1917. Collection consists of letters written home to family in South Yarra, Victoria.

This is a comprehensive collection, Ellsworth having written regularly, weekly or fortnightly, during his three years service. Ellsworth is frank in expressing his frustrations with service life and signs his letters to his family affectionately. He also shares his opinions on the initial reactions of the men in Egypt to Bean's first despatches. His letters usually contain comments and reports on relations and friends, both in England and Australia. Although Ellsworth comments a number of times that he will not marry, his letters also contain references to women he has met. There are also repeated comments on the attentions that Australian servicemen were receiving from English girls, and the number of marriages that resulted. The letters contain information on artillery training and discipline as well as the necessary arrangements for men to return to a fighting battery once they had left it due to injury or training requirements. The descriptions of actions at both Gallipoli and on the Western Front include details relating to artillery transport and supply.


Biographical note: 843 Battery Sergeant Major Norman Griffiths Ellsworth, 102 Howitzer Battery, died 31 July 1917 of wounds received at Zillebeke. Royal Mint Official of South Yarra, VIC; born Creswick, VIC; educated at Church of England Grammar School, Melbourne; was for 11 years a member of 9 Battery AFA Militia; joined the AIF 19 August 1914; was a member of the crew which took the first gun ashore at ANZAC, 25 April 1915; age at time of death 31 years.

• Letters from Norman Griffiths Ellsworth to his Mother, 1914-1915
• Letters from Norman Griffiths Ellsworth to his Mother, 1916
• Letters from Norman Griffiths Ellsworth to his Family, 1917
• Typed copy of a newspaper article relating to Norman Griffiths Ellsworth, 1915
• Letter from Fred Biddle to Norman Griffiths Ellsworth, 1916
• Letter from A.J. Peatling to Norman Griffiths Ellsworth, 1916
• Letter from May Tilton to Mrs Ellsworth, 1917