THE SLEUTHING GOES ON!

During the centenary of the First World War I produced an online book about the Ashbrooke members - past and present - who took part in the conflict. There were some 250 case studies with over 60 losing their lives as a result of the war. ( Anybody interested in an online copy can still get in touch with me for one). One of the interesting case studies involved a Cecil Boyns Ellis and runs as follows;

SCFC/FWW/55 ELLIS CECIL B – SAPPER ROYAL ENGINEERS This is a difficult case and must be full of conjecture! The club records have a 17 year old of this name as a member in 1913 and into the war and giving various addresses such as 6, Alice Street, 78, Otto Terrace and 5, Northcote Avenue. A C B Ellis also played for the 3rd XI at cricket in 1912. A Cornish born Cecil B Ellis enlisted at Sunderland in September 1914 although none of the above addresses have him there in 1901 or 1911. This C B Ellis, a Royal Engineer (44768), went to France on 4 July 1915 and was discharged in 1919 at the age of 23. A Cecil Boyns Ellis had his birth registered in Penzance, Cornwall in the second quarter of 1895. In 1901 he was living with his mother in Cornwall in a middle class area among mining engineers and in 1911 was with an uncle described as a teacher. The conjecture is (through the number of Sunderland addresses and background) that he may have come to Sunderland as a teenager to study possibly as a mining engineer. Cecil Boyns Ellis died in Lincolnshire in 1975 at the age of 79.

A few days ago, I received an e-mail from a Mark Hallam in Cornwall who was studying his family history. Cecil was part of this study and Mark has been able to help us flesh out Cecil's story. Cecil was born at St Just in Penwith, Cornwall and baptised there in 1895. As noted above, his father was a mine manager and (like many Cornish families) the entire family later moved to South Africa. Cecil was there in the 1920s. He then returned to England and was in Manchester and an aircraft fitter at the outbreak of the Second World War. All the other details seem to be correct as well as the reason for his being in Sunderland just before the First World War.

Mark noted in his e-mail - ' as Cecil's name is unique I tried Google and found your page. He is connected to my grandfather ... just like everyone else is down here'.

When I researched the book I was aware that the pen pictures I painted could always be developed and I hope others might get in touch in the near ( or even distant) future to help broaden our knowledge. - KG

Pre WW1 Sunderland XI - many involved in the conflict

.Keith Gregson

keith.gregson@talk21.com