An absolutely unique and amazingly rare lot which belonged to 2nd Lieutenant Stanley John Ellison 1/5th South Staffordshire Regiment. The lot consists of his Life Guard trench periscope and pouch, identity disk, memorial scroll and two letters with envelopes. Firstly, the identity disk is accompanied by a letter written by the imperial war graves commission which enclosed the identity disk. The disk was found on Ellisons body and sent to his family upon their request. This means that the identity disk was there on that tragic day when the 46th division and Stanley attacked Gommecourt as a 'diversionary attack'. Also it is because of this small identity disk that his body was identified and he has a known grave.
The life guard periscope is in good condition for its age and was used by Stanley during his time in the trenches. The pouch is named on the back to 2nd Lieutenant Ellison and also P S Godrich Dorset Regiment who I think served during the second world war so could have been a family friend. The pouch has some condition issues however seeing that it has seen active service in two world wars, this is understandable. Another item in the lot is his memorial scroll which was issued to any soldier who was killed during the war.
During my research on 2nd lieutenant Ellison I found a large amount of information. Ellison was born on the 4th October 1896 in Coldfield. He was educated at Sutton Coldfield Grammar school and was a member of the OTC. He was commissioned on the 25th October 1915 and joined the battalion on the 15th June 1916 in France. During my research I found a first hand account by private J Monk 9713 who was part of the battalion bombing party (F Bombing party) 2nd wave. He said 'I noticed 2nd Lt S J Ellison and a Sgt Gee from his battalion accompanied by a few men but they were all hit within a few minutes'. His body was found in October 1921 and he is now buried at Bailleul Road East cemetery St Laurent Balgny France. This is probably due to the rules at the time for concentrated burials where only a small amount of cemeteries were open for burials no matter where the body was found.
This is truly a unique group of items with a special connection to the 1st July 1916. There is plenty of opportunity to purchase medals or death plaques from the 1st July but seldom an opportunity to purchase something that was definitively there on the day.
