Date of birth: 11/11/1896

Place of birth: Crayke, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

Country: England, United Kingdom

Force: British Expeditionary Force

Rank: Gunner

Service number: 129198

Enlistment place: York, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

Units:  —  Royal Field Artillery, "A" Bty. 186th Bde.  (Last known unit)

Date of death: 22/09/1917

Place of death: Lock N° 8, Belgium

Cause of death: Died of wounds (D.O.W.)

Age: 20

British War Medal Medal

Victory Medal Medal

Gunner Ellis Wells was part of ‘A’ Battery, 186th Brigade, 39th Division. During the night of the 21st /22nd of September a German shell landed into the small dugout where he and another soldier were sleeping. Although Gunner Wells was brought to advanced dressing station, his life could not be saved. Due to the location of his burial the advanced dressing station can be presumed to be the advanced dressing station northeast of Voormezele, on the east bank of the Ypres-Komen canal between Lock N°8 and Lankhof Farm. The location where the ‘A’ Battery was stationed at the end of the month September could not be determined due to the fact that the War Diaries of August and September 1917 are not preserved. At the start of October 1917 the 186th Brigade Royal Field Artillery was stationed near Lock N°7 on the Ypres-Komen canal. Its likely that the Brigade was also located near this position at the end of September 1917.

Ancestry https://www.ancestry.com/ Sources used

CWGC https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/483653/wells,-/ Sources used

Naval & Military Archive http://www.nmarchive.com/ Sources used

The Long, Long Trail https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/ Sources used

W.G. MacPherson, Medical Services General History : History of the Great War based on official documents, 139. Sources used