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PO. Evan Thomas Ellis
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Collingwood Btn.
from:20 Acton Street, Birches Head, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire
My grandfather, Evan Ellis, was born in Bagillt, Flintshire on 3rd September 1889. In 1907 he successfully applied to join the Mersey Division of the RNVR at HMS Eaglet, Customs House, Liverpool. In order to enrol as a boy seaman my grandfather needed to be under 18. So on his application he lied about his age and his Service Certificate states his birthday as 3rd October, thus making him one day under 18 when he signed up on 2nd October 1907. In reality he was 18 years and 1 month old.
Up to 1907 Grandfather had been a rope splicer in the coal mining industry of North Staffordshire coal field. Still in the RNVR, he joined the Merchant Navy in late 1911 and spent three years at sea gaining valuable experience which was to ensure his rapid promotion upon being mobilised for the RND in late 1914.
Commencing training at HMS Victory in Portsmouth as an Ordinary Seaman on 4th October 1914 he quickly rose through the ranks of Able Seaman, Leading Seaman and had attained the rank of Petty Officer by 12th December. He was now 25 years old. In February 1915, after the RND returned from Antwerp and their battalions reformed, grandfather was assigned to the Collingwood Battalion and placed as 2nd I/C of B Company 3rd Platoon under the command of Sub Lt Arthur Watts RNVR. The Collingwoods were held back at Blandford when the 1st and 2nd Brigades RND were dispatched for Egypt in early March 1915. Collingwood along with Benbow and Hawke Battalions were held in reserve at Bulford to complete their training.
On 10th May 1915 the Collingwood Battalion left Bulford to embark on SS Ivernia at Devonport, sailing on 12th May for a fast passage to Gibraltar arriving on 16th May for coaling and further orders. Owing to German U-boat activity, Ivernia sailed the same day for Malta arriving on 19th May. The ship stayed in Malta for 26 hours for rest and recuperation before proceeding to Mudros late on 20th May arriving on the 23rd May.
On 27th May the Battalion were given orders to proceed to the front at Cape Helles and were transferred by lighters at night to the now famous River Clyde and landed on V Beach early morning on 28th. For the next three days the Collingwoods were engaged in trench digging preparing for action which was to come so abruptly in a few days. In early June my grandfather was probably relieved to be given four days "stand easy" with the rest of the battalion.
This "stand easy" was curtailed and on 3rd June the Collingwoods were ordered forward to the frontline trenches in preparation for a general attack on 4th June. This action was to become the 3rd Battle of Krithia. At 1210 on 4th June the Collingwoods went over the top. By 1245 the battalion had taken terrible casualties and were in retreat. In just over thirty minutes they had suffered almost 500 casualties killed, wounded or missing. 16 out of 24 officers were killed and 5 were wounded including Sub Lt Watts, my grandfather's Platoon Commander. Grandfather, uninjured, was able to lead the remnants of his platoon back to relative safety of the support trenches.
Two days later, on 6th June, the Turks mounted a counterattack and my grandfather received shrapnel wounds, to his lower back, from an exploding shell. Evacuated via a casualty clearing station he was transferred to RNH Bighi on Malta aboard HMHS Soudan. He remained here for about a week before being transferred back to UK arriving on 30th June and admitted to Chatham RNH.
On 21st October 1915 he was returned to the 2nd Reserve Battalion in HMS Victory but finally succumbed to his injury and was declared unfit for further service on 24th November 1915. My grandfather was awarded the War Medal, Victory Medal and 1914-15 Star as well as becoming the 100th recipient of the Silver War Badge.
My grandfather continued as a coal miner until WW2 when he became a War Reserve Police Officer. He died in 1970 still carrying the shrapnel in his lower back.
