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How NOT to use blogs
By keithmroberts
This area is not for queries but for ongoing blogs. if you want to ask for help, please go to the appropriate sub-forum in the main part of the GWF. You have been asked to make your first post in a specified location. Once you have done that, your query can be raised in the various sections of the forum. If you previously posted a request for help or information in this area, it is likely to be deleted at some point in the next few weeks or months. So if you have a reply, please make a note o- 0 comments
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Brigadier General Wilfrid Ellershaw
5th June 2024
Remembered Today: Brigadier General Wilfrid ELLERSHAW Mentioned in Despatches Royal Artillery who died 05/06/1916 HOLLYBROOK MEMORIAL, SOUTHAMPTON United Kingdom
On 5th June 1916 HMS Hampshire struck a German mine off the coast of the Orkney Islands whilst en route to Russia. On board was Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener and his Staff who were on their way to Russia to meet Tsar Nicholas II. Of the 749 people on board, 737 would lose their lives including Lord Kitchener. Also lost was a member of Kitchener's staff was Brigadier General Wilfrid Ellershaw, a Gunner Officer.
Wilfred Ellershaw was born on 16th July 1871 at Chew Stoke in Somerset. [1] He was the son of the Reverend John Ellershaw, of Clifton, Bristol. [2] Wilfred was educated at Bloxham School in Oxfordshire [3] before entering Marlborough college in 1884. [4]
Ellershaw commissioned into the Royal Artillery from the Royal Military Academy in 1892. [5] He married Katherine Ingles, daughter of Rear-Admiral John Ingles and Catherine Sophia Glennie, on 22 June 1899. [6] The couple would have three daughters; Phyllis (born 1901), Ruth (born 1903), and Katherine (born 1907).[7]
Wilfred Ellershaw attended the Royal Military Academy as a Gentlemen Cadet and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery on 1st April 1892. [8] He promoted to Lieutenant three years later [9]. In April 1900 he was promoted to Captain [10] and in the August appointed as an Adjutant. [11] On Novemeber 30th 1900 Ellershaw was posted to the Royal Military Academy as an instructor [12] where he would spend the next six years. Whilst at the Royal Military Academy he was appointed Adjutant and Quartermaster [13] then Adjutant of Instructional Staff B. [14] Ellershaw's tenure at the Royal Military Academy ended on 1st February 1906.
He was a keen cricketer and a became member of the M.C.C in 1904. [16] He would also play cricket for the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich [17], the Royal Artillery [18] and Gloucestershire County [19].
After leaving the Royal Military Academy there was a brief period of being a supernumerary[20] before being appointed an Adjutant on 16th April 1906. [21] He was in that post for a few months before being sent to the School of Signalling in January 1908. [22] That would be a very short posting, as almost immediately he was seconded for service on the Staff. [23] Whilst on the Staff Ellershaw was promoted to Major on 2nd October 1909 [24], returning to Regimental Duty in January 1912. [25]
When War was declared in August 1914 Major Ellershaw was commanding 113 Battery [26] , part of 25 Brigade RFA. He landed in France on 18th August 1914 [27]. The 25th Brigade was allocated to the 1st Divisional Artillery and would be engaged in the Battle of Mons, Battle of the Marne, Battle of the Aisne, and the First Battle of Ypres. [28] For his conduct during those early battles of World War One Major Ellershaw as Mentioned In Despatches. [29]
Ellershaw was promoted to Brevet Lieutenant Colonel whilst serving with 25 Brigade in February 1915 [30] and posted to the School of Gunnery as a Major-Instructor in Gunnery in March 1915. [31] A month later he was seconded to the Staff on 26th April 1915. [32]
He was promoted to Temporary Brigadier 24th November 1915 [33] and substantive Lieutenant Colonel with effect from 3rd September 1915. [34] The Army list of 1916 shows him in a Special Appointment graded as General Staff Officer,1st grade at the war office. [35] In that appointment he was aide-de-camp to the Secretary of War, Lord Kitchener. [36]
Brigadier Ellershaw
On the 5th June 1916 Lord Kitchener and his staff boarded HMS Hampshire (an armoured cruiser built on the River Tyne at Armstrong Whitworth, Elswick) in Scapa Flow. They were bound for Archangel in Russia to meet Tsar Nicholas II .
HMS Hampshire
Kitchener and Staff board HMS Hampshire
As HMS Hampshire proceeded North in a gale force wind on the Western side of the Orkney Islands she struck a mine off Marwick Head around 8 pm in the evening.
HMS Hampshire sinking
The ship sank with the loss of 737 lives, only 12 people survived. Amongst those lost were Lord Kitchener and Brigadier-General Ellershaw.
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Brigadier-General Wilfred Ellershaw
Brigadier-General Wilfred Ellershaw is remembered on the CWGC Hollybrook Memorial which is situated in Southampton (Hollybrook) cemetery.
Brigadier General Wilfrid Ellershaw | War Casualty Details 2894498 | CWGC
The Hollybrook Memorial commemorates by name almost 1,900 servicemen and women of the Commonwealth land and air forces whose graves are not known, many of whom were lost in transports or other vessels torpedoed or mined in home waters. Also recorded on the memorial is Field Marshall Lord Kitchener.
Hollybrook Memorial Southampton
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