| This photograph was identified by a previous collector as Deputy Assistant Commissary-General of Ordnance Fraser Mr. John Young the correct identity of this soldier has been established. Pictured above is Surgeon Philip Mackay Ellis of the Army Medical Department. The photograph is dated on the reverse "10-9-78" and was probably taken just prior to Ellis deploying to India. The Army list of 1879 shows him being station in Bengal. Ellis was born in Madeira, Portugal on 30 January, 1855 being the son of John and Julia Ellis. John Ellis was a wealthy landowner with the 1861 Census for Chudleigh, Devon listing his mother Julia's occupation simply as "Gentlewoman". Philip Mackay Ellis graduated from medical school in 1876 and entered the Army an year later. His military career was as follows: Surgeon - 5 August, 1877 Surgeon-Major - 5 August, 1889 Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel - 5 August, 1897 Colonel - 13 August, 1904 Surgeon-Major-General - 31 December, 1908 Retired Pay - 23 April, 1910 Ellis served in the Burmese Expedition (1885-87) being entitled to the 1854 India General Service Medal with the clasp "Burma 1885-87" Ellis spent a large portion of his career station in India and at the time that the Medical Department's roll for the Burmese Expedition was compiled (13 September, 1887) he was posted with No. 5 British Filed Hospital in Bombay . He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath but I have been unable to find the specific date for this honor in the London Gazette. Ellis married Miss Gertrude Septima Manders in 1895 at Newton Abbott, Devon. During World War One Ellis acted as county director of the British Red Cross for Caenarvonshire. Ellis died on 16 May, 1919 at his home in Pwllheli, Caenarvonshire. Carte de Visite Henri Claudet - Photographer 107 Regent Street, W. London, England 10 September, 1878 |
| Above: The carte de visite's reverse side showing the former collector's pencil note identifying the sitter as Fraser name as "Mellis" into this it actually reads "PMellis" . The original writer (Ellis himself?) for some reason left out the spaces and periods between the first two initials and used a large lower case "e" in place of the capital version of that letter. |