First World War Medal Trio – Private William Ellis, 6th Bn. Bedfordshire Regiment
1914-15 Star – 15706 PTE W. ELLIS. BEDF:R.
British War Medal – 15706 PTE. W. ELLIS. BEDF. R.
Victory Medal – 15706 PTE. W. ELLIS. BEDF. R.
William Ellis was born in 1893 at Welwyn, Hertfordshire, and was raised in a rural agricultural setting. By the time of the 1911 Census, he was a 16-year-old farm labourer, living at Burnham Green, Hertfordshire, in the household of his Aunt Mary, together with several cousins. The family had moved there from Water End Farm, Sandridge, where William was born.
Ellis enlisted at Hertford, joining the Bedfordshire Regiment, and was posted to the 6th Battalion, receiving regimental number 15706. He embarked for France on 30 August 1915, entering the Western Front during the period of expansion and consolidation following the heavy fighting of that year. His overseas service qualified him for the 1914–15 Star, marking him as an early volunteer rather than a later conscript.
The 6th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment served extensively on the Western Front, seeing prolonged trench service and heavy casualties during successive operations. By 1918, the battalion was engaged in operations in northern France during the closing stages of the war, a period marked by constant movement, counter-attacks and severe local fighting as the German Spring Offensive was checked and Allied forces began to regain the initiative.
Private William Ellis was killed in action on 6 April 1918, aged 25, during fighting in the Arras sector. His death occurred during a phase of intense operations in the region, where British units were holding and strengthening positions following the German offensives of March 1918. The circumstances reflect the continuing high casualty rates suffered by infantry battalions even in the final year of the war.
Ellis is buried at Gommecourt British Cemetery No. 2, Hebuterne, France, Grave V.H.15. His headstone bears the regimental badge of the Bedfordshire Regiment and includes the personal inscription “IN LOVING MEMORY DEAR MOTHER”, providing a moving personal detail. The cemetery itself contains the graves of men who fell in some of the hardest-fought fighting in the Arras area.
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