Appeal to help solve mystery over Ludlow soldier
The name Frederick Ellis will not be found on the lists of World War One dead in Ludlow, despite his being born and bred in the town.
Now information is being sought about the soldier, killed in 1916, and how his name came to be on a war memorial in Liverpool.
The mystery came to light as part of renewed research in the lead up to the century of World War One this summer.
Mayor of Ludlow Jim Smithers said: "I had a lady, Rebecca Black from Lancashire, contact me to say 'Do you know anything about a Frederick Ellis?' and I said 'no, I didn't'.
"She's part of a committee researching the war memorial in Garston, a district of Liverpool."
Ellis, like many other Ludlow men, was part of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI), but his name does not appear alongside his fellow infantrymen in his home town.
Mr Smithers said 25 boards listing those lost in the war were given to Ludlow's Royal British Legion branch after the old town hall was demolished in 1986.
The legion and Ludlow Town Council are planning to have the boards, currently stored in the RBL headquarters at Victory House, refurbished and put up in the Guildhall in Mill Street. They are hoped to be in place for a civic event marking the centenary of World War One on August 4.
But Mr Smithers said: "I'm beginning to find names that are not on the boards.
"They just had to make do with the information that was available at the time."
He had discovered that Ellis was born between December 1890 and January 1891, and joined the 1st battalion KSLI at Copthorne Barracks in Shrewsbury between 1910 and 1911, he said.
In 1914 he married Edith Percival in Garston, but since by then he had been with the KSLI for four years it is a mystery as to how or why he got there, he said.
Mr Smithers said: "He was already a soldier before the war. What we're trying to do is find out something about his life in between. It would be interesting to see what happened and why he went over to Garston."
Ellis was only married for two years – he was killed on April 26, 1916, four days after the 1st battalion attacked German lines.
"We're trying to find any information or anyone who might know the family. It was a big family, he apparently had lots of older brothers who were labourers and farm workers," he said.
Call Mr Smithers on (01584) 871970.
