Horace Spencer Edward Ellis (1910 - 1942)

This short picture tribute is dedicated to the memory of my mother's brother, who went missing in action on a bombing raid in January 1942. His early life was affected by the First World War but by the time he died in the Second, aged 31, he had excelled at the sport of rowing (as an amateur) and enjoyed nearly ten years of marriage.

 

Horace, pictured here in 1914, was the first child of Harold Charles and Charlotte Florence Ellis. He was named after a family friend, Horace Larby, a Member of Parliament. His other two names honoured his grandfathers: Spencer Ellis and Edward Noakes.

This photograph, taken in 1916, shows him with his baby sister Dorothy, who had been born just before the outbreak of the First World War. At the time they and their mother were living with her parents, Edward & Jane Noakes, whilst their father, Harold Ellis, was serving in the British army, stationed in India, where he remained until 1920 because of the perceived 'Bolshevik threat' to the Empire following the Russian Revolution.

This picture was taken of Horace with his sister Dorothy in 1929 in the garden of their grandfather's house.

Horace married Mabel (May) Boncey in December 1932 and they are shown here standing at the extreme right of this family photograph taken to celebrate his parents' 25th wedding anniversary.

Horace worked at the Times newspaper (on his marriage certificate he is described as a 'receiving cashier') and, as a result, he became involved in the Times Rowing Club

As well as getting married, in 1932, Horace became the Times Rowing Club's sculling champion and he subsequently finished runner-up in the same event in 1934 and 1936. However, he also rowed in the eights and was in the winning crew in 1933.

 

When the Second World War broke out in 1939, Horace joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and served in 106 Squadron, flying a Handley-Page Hampden (pictured above).

The photograph above commemorated the award of his 'pilot's wings' and was taken shortly before his death. At the time his service rank was Sergeant and he was one of a Hampden's crew of four: pilot, observer (who navigated and dropped the bombs), gunner / wireless operator and air gunner.

According to his sister, Dorothy, he died during an attempt to bomb the German Battleship Tirpitz, which was hidden in the fjords of Norway and was seen as a significant threat particularly to the arctic convoy routes supplying Soviet Russia. The Tirpitz was attacked many times by air, surface and sub-surface, including one by X Craft midget submarines but was finally sunk on 12 November 1944 by RAF Lancaster Bombers using their largest bomb, the 12,000 lb 'Tallboy'.

Horace and his crew were among 187 aircraft lost by 106 Squadron during the Second World War. At the time of his disappearance they were based at the RAF aerodrome at Coningsby, Lincolnshire.

 

The Hampden was considered obsolete by 1942. The aircraft's maximum speed was 254 miles per hour; it could carry 4,000 lbs of bombs for 1,200 miles at a maximum height of 19,000 feet. Its very narrow fuselage made movement inside particularly difficult, and if the pilot was wounded it was said to be 'next to impossible' to drag him out of the seat.

 

Paul Newman

July 03

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