Captain (Temp) Michael George Rupert ELLIS (330896)
Grenadier Guards

Date of birth: 7th December 1925
Date of death: 26th March 1946

Killed on active service aged 20
Buried at Cologne Southern Cemetery Plot 1 Row AA Grave 1
He was born at Kampala, Uganda on the 7th of December 1925 the only son of Captain Arthur George Ellis, colonial civil servant, and his first wife, Gloria Sylvia (nee Tipping) of Entebbe and of St Clements in Jersey.

He was educated at Brunswick School, Haywards Heath, and at the King's School Canterbury from January 1940 to December 1943, where he was in School House. He was awarded his second colours both in cricket and in rugby and was appointed as a monitor. He achieved a "strong" grade in his School Certificate.

On leaving King's he joined the army and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards on the 22nd of September 1944. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 22nd of March 1945 and embarked for overseas service on the 12th of September 1945.

On the 26th of March 1946 he was crossing a railway track at Krefeld in Southern Germany when he was knocked down by a stray railway engine. He died of his injuries in hospital a few hours later.

His house master wrote:-

"Michael Ellis was in many ways the typical public school boy. Frank and engaging in his manners, he combined vigour and determination with a modest, unassuming nature and an unusual degree of thoughtfulness. He was a keen and enthusiastic boy, who possessed a marked degree of initiative and resource. He seemed marked out for an Army career and in fact had done very well in the Army. He was an officer of great promise and enjoyed every minute of his Army life. Altogether he was a very vital person and it is a great tragedy that his brief life should be should be already over when he was but on the threshold. A career of distinguished service seemed to open up before him. I personally will miss him very much, for he had a great affection for the House and the School and he was one of our most frequent as well as our most welcome visitors."
School House

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