Noel Ellis

Noel Ellis
Personal information
Full name Arthur Noel Ellis
Born (1921-07-09)9 July 1921
Died 6 July 1942(1942-07-06) (aged 20)
Queensland
Original team Wesley College / Collegians
Height 175 cm (5 ft 9 in)
Weight 82.5 kg (182 lb)
Position Half back flank
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1940–41 Melbourne 3 (0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1941.
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Arthur Noel Ellis (9 July 1921 – 6 July 1942) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Melbourne in the Victorian Football League.

Family

The son of Cornelius Stanley Ellis (1894–1948)[1] and Amy Gertrude Ellis (1894–1982), née Christensen, Arthur Noel Ellis was born on 9 July 1921. He had two brothers: Paul and Graeme.

Education

He attended Wesley College on St Kilda Road.[2]

Football

Ellis played for Wesley College's First XVIII[3] and, at the same time, was playing for Collegians Football Club.[4][5]

In 1940, "Noel Ellis was outstanding at centre half-back with Collegians, in the Victorian Amateur Football Association, [who] transferred to the Demons when the amateurs suspended their competition halfway through the season [due to the war]" (Sporting Globe, 24 August 1940).[6]

Ellis's application for a permit to play with South Melbourne was refused by the VFL Permit Committee, on 26 June 1940 – on the precedent-setting grounds that, as a boarder at Wesley College, Wesley College (rather than his parents' residence at Red Cliffs, Victoria) was deemed to be his official place of residence – and, so, given the physical location of Wesley College (on the eastern side of St Kilda Road), Ellis was residentially bound to Melbourne. The VFL Permit Committee granted him a clearance from Old Collegians to Melbourne.[7]

Ellis participated in his first practice at Melbourne the following evening.[8] He was selected as 19th man in his first First XVIII match for Melbourne, against Hawthorn, on 24 August 1940 (round 17).[9] He also played for the First XVIII in the first two matches of the 1941 VFL season (against Fitzroy,[10] and South Melbourne).

Ellis was injured while playing for Melbourne against Carlton in the first round of the Patriotic Premiership (1941), at the M.C.G., on Saturday, 24 May 1941,[11] and did not play again.

Cricket

He played cricket at Wesley College[12] and South Melbourne Cricket Club.[13]

Military service

He enlisted in the Second AIF in October 1941 – V185010.[14][15]

Death

Only 20 years of age (three days before he turned 21), Ellis was accidentally shot and killed,[16] by a mishandled revolver, at a World War II military camp in Queensland.[17][18][19]

The soldier who fired the weapon, Lieutenant Mervyn David Henry (VX101968),[20] had been talking to Ellis in the mess tent when the incident occurred.[21][22]

The Melbourne First XVIII wore black armbands in their match against Carlton, on 11 July 1942, as a mark of respect for the memory of Ellis.[23]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Deaths: Ellis, The Argus, (Tuesday, 4 May 1948), p.2". Archived from the original on 4 December 2024. Retrieved 19 June 2026.
  2. ↑ School Speech Nights: Wesley College Archived 4 December 2024 at the Wayback Machine The Age 16 December 1939 page 32
  3. ↑ 'Old Boy's' Sporting Review: College Sports, The Australasian, (Saturday, 8 July 1939), p.19; 'Old Boy's' Sporting Review: College Sports, The Australasian, (Saturday, 5 August 1939), p.16.
  4. ↑ "Amateur Permits: Final Meeting, The Age, (Tuesday, 5 July 1938), p.15". Archived from the original on 4 December 2024. Retrieved 19 June 2026.
  5. ↑ The Amateurs, The Age, (Friday, 14 June 1940), p.4.
  6. ↑ The Sporting Globe, (Saturday, 24 August 1940), p.3.
  7. ↑ "Position of Schoolboy Boarders, The Argus, (Thursday, 27 June 1940), p.12". Archived from the original on 4 March 2018. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  8. ↑ Around League Clubs, The Argus, (Friday, 28 June 1940), p.16.
  9. ↑ South Cricketer 19th Man for Melbourne: Noel Ellis a Sturdy Utility Player, The (Emerald Hill) Record, (Saturday, 24 August 1940), p.3.
  10. ↑ "Ellis, in his first game, showed promise": Fitzroy Fast, The Age, (Monday, 28 April 1941), p.10. Archived 4 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ↑ V.F.L. Patriotic Premiership, The Sporting Globe, (Saturday, 24 May 1941), p.3: at Archived 4 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine and .
  12. ↑ "Old Boy, "Wesley College: Public Schools Champions", The Australasian, (Saturday, 8 April 1939), p.28". Archived from the original on 4 December 2024. Retrieved 19 June 2026.
  13. ↑ South Melbourne Cricketer-Airman Killed, The (Emerald Hill) Record, (Saturday, 11 July 1942), p.1.
  14. ↑ Sportsmen Turn to War, And Footballers are Proud of a New Uniform, The Australasian, (Saturday, 22 August 1942), p.12 Archived 4 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine; Taylor, Percy, "They Take Strike Against the Enemy: Cricketers are On Service Everywhere, The Australasian, (Saturday, 29 August 1942), p.12. Archived 4 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ↑ "Taylor, Percy, "Melbourne are Proud of their Great War Record", The Australasian, (Saturday, 24 June 1944), p.23". Archived from the original on 28 November 2018. Retrieved 19 June 2026.
  16. ↑ "Victorians in Army Casualty List: Killed Accidentally, The Argus, (Wednesday, 4 November 1942), p.5". Archived from the original on 4 March 2018. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  17. ↑ "Killing Charge Over Gun Fails". The Courier-Mail. Brisbane. 14 August 1942. p. 4. Retrieved 19 May 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ↑ Deaths: On Active Service, The Argus, (Thursday, 9 July 1942), p.2 Archived 4 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine; Deaths: On Active Service, The Argus, (Thursday, 9 July 1942), p.5. Archived 4 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ↑ Memorial Service for Late Noel Ellis, The (Emerald Hill) Record, (Saturday, 22 August 1942), p.1 Archived 4 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine; Memorial Service for Deceased Athlete, The (Emerald Hill) Record, (Saturday, 29 August 1942), p.3.
  20. ↑ "World War II Nominal Roll; Henry, Mervyn Davis (VX101968)". Archived from the original on 4 March 2018. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  21. ↑ "Manslaughter Charge". The Telegraph (City Final Last Minute News ed.). Brisbane. 13 August 1942. p. 2. Retrieved 19 May 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  22. ↑ In relation to the incident, and the subsequent inquest, (i) Henry's service record (see Archived 6 December 2024 at the Wayback Machine) makes no mention of the incident; and (ii) Ellis's service record has not been digitized (see: Archived 28 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine).
  23. ↑ "Melbourne Confident, The Argus, (Tuesday, 14 July 1942), p.6". Archived from the original on 4 March 2018. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
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