Join Chris Green (The History Chap) as he tells the story of the last British soldier to die in the First World War.
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George Edwin Ellison, a miner from Leeds, survived the whole 4 years of World War 1, only to be killed by a sniper just 90 minutes before the war ended at 11 am on the 11th November 1918.
The saddest part of this story is that the two sides had agreed a ceasefire at 5am that morning.
The Allied commanders, however, decided to delay the implementation until 11am.
Had they issued an immediate cessation of hostilities, George Ellison would have survived and returned to his wife and son in Leeds.
He was buried in the St. Symphorien military cemetery just outside Mons.
In one of those strange coincidences in history, his grave is just yards from Private John Parr, the first British soldier killed in the First World War.
Parr, had lied about his age and joined the British Army when he was just 15 years old in 1912.
His unit, the 4th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, were one of the first to be sent to Europe as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) that made its way to the town of Mons in Belgium.
The Battle of Mons was the first major engagement between the British & German armies in WW1.
Two days before the battle, on the 21st August 1914, Parr was sent on a bicycle mission to watch the approaching German army.
He ran into a patrol consisting of German cavalry and was shot dead.
Private John Parr was just 17.
Despite, George Ellison dying with just 90 minutes of the war left. He was not the last commonwealth soldier to killed that morning.
Private George Lawrence Price, a Canadian soldier, was killed at 10:58am, just two minutes before the Armistice in place.
And even then, he wasn’t the last Allied soldier to die on the Western Front, because this bloody conflict still had time to take one more life.
American, Henry Gunther, was killed in the very last minute of the war as he charged a German machine gun nest.
In all, nearly 3,000 soldiers from both sides were killed on that final morning of the First World War.
#firstworldwar #remembranceday #lastbritishsoldiertodie
Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:52 Private George Edwin Ellison
7:00 The First & Last British soldiers killed
7:20 Private John Parr
9:04 Private George Lawrence Price
10:08 St. Symphorien Military Cemetery
10:58 Henry Gunther
12:21 Death on the last day of World War 1
14:16 Conclusion
14:49 The History Chap
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/ thehistorychap
My name is Chris Green ("The History Chap") and I am on a mission to share the amazing history of Britain so that we can appreciate where we have come from and why we are here.
History should not be stuffy or a long list of dates or kings & queens.
So rather than lectures or RU-vid animations, I tell stories that bring the past to life.
My aim is to be chat as if I were having a coffee or meal with you. Jean in Maryland, USA recently wrote: "Chris, is the history teacher I wish I had at school!"
Just for the record, I do have a history degree and continue to have a passion for the subject I studied.
Disclaimer: All opinions and comments expressed in the 'Comments' section do not reflect the opinions of Chris Green Communication Ltd t/a The History Chap. All opinions and comments should contribute to the dialogue. Chris Green Communication Ltd does not condone written attacks, insults, racism, sexism, extremism, violence or otherwise questionable comments or material in the 'Comments' section, and reserves the right to delete any comment violating this rule or to block any poster from the channel.
9 май 2024
