Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Born on 16th April 1866 in Sunderland, although his Canadian enlistment papers made him five years younger, William Ellmore was the oldest child of river pilot William and his wife Mary. Brought up at 16 Barrack Street in the east end of the town very close to the river and port by the time he was aged 15 he four siblings, Mary Alice, Elizabeth, John and George, his youngest sister Rose having died aged 3 in 1873.

Father William died in 1883 and two years later, on 14th February 1885, aged 18, William enlisted in the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment in Sunderland, signing up for twelve years. He gave his mother Mary, then living in Stafford Street as his next of kin. Attached to the 2nd Battalion, in October 1886 Private 1107 Ellmore was stationed in Bermuda in the West Indies, from February 1888 the Battalion was transferred to Halifax, Nova Scotia and then back to Bermuda in March 1891, where William was appointed Lance Corporal, a post he only held for a matter of months, before returning home two years later.

In Sunderland in 1894 William married Phyllis Chapman at Holy Trinity Church, and for the next five years was based at Battalion HQ in York. Having signed up to serve another four years in the army William was posted to South Africa arriving early in 1900 as a reinforcement for the British forces fighting in the second Boer War, where he took part in the Relief of Kimberley in February. Remaining in South Africa until the end of the war he was awarded both the Queen’s and King’s South Africa Medals with clasps.

On arrival back in York at the end of February 1902 he was discharged from the army on termination of his engagement having served 17 years and 13 days, and he was stated as being of good character. He returned home to his wife, then living at 111 High Street, Sunderland. After just five months at home, in August 1902 William enlisted as Private 5448 in the newly formed 5th Battalion Royal Garrison Regiment which was saw him returning to Halifax, Nova Scotia, the last British garrison to be based in Canada.

Private Ellmore deserted from his regiment on 15th July 1904, and it is uncertain if he returned to his wife, or England.

On 5th November 1914 William Ellmore, who described himself as a labourer, enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He made himself five years younger than he really was, mentioned his time in the West Riding Regiment, but not the RGR, and gave as his next of kin his younger sister Mary Ann, now married but still living in Sunderland. Becoming Private 744 in the 25th Battalion, within a few days he was appointed Corporal, but twice early in 1915 he was punished and fined for being drunk and disorderly, his conduct so bad that on 24th February 1915 he was discharged for misconduct.

A career soldier to the end William reenlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 19th March 1915 in Amherst, Nova Scotia as Private 414333 in the 40th Battalion, this time giving his sister Elizabeth as his next of kin, and after just six weeks he died there from heart failure on 25th April 1915.

William Ellmore is remembered in Sunderland on S140.048 part 9, page 200.

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Ellmore