WWI memoirs of a key West Sussex artist
The words of a key West Sussex artist who served in the trenches of the First World War have been brought back to life in a major new publication.
Sussex Record Society and West Sussex Record Office have collaborated to publish Ralph Ellis’s illustrated memoir.
Ralph Ellis, born in
Arundel in 1885, joined the Royal Sussex Regiment on the outbreak of war in 1914 and served in the trenches.
Ellis saw action in the
Battle of Loos and the Battle of the Somme. He was left permanently disabled after being wounded by shrapnel at Ypres in 1917.
The memoir, written during his long period of convalescence, contains sketches and paintings of Ellis’s comrades, local scenes and the destruction wreaked by war.
His accompanying text records in detail the reality of life in the trenches, and the result comes promised as a powerful and compelling account of an ordinary soldier’s experience of war.
Professor Brian Short, president of the Sussex Record Society, said: “We are delighted that this our latest volume will celebrate the links not only with those who sacrificed so much in the First World War but also demonstrate the service they performed on the European mainland, allowing us to look outwards beyond our normal county boundaries.
“We thank Sue Hepburn for her editorship of this moving tribute, and to do full justice to the original memoir, this book, which will be Volume 100 published by the Sussex Record Society, presents a full-colour facsimile of the original manuscript.”
Wendy Walker, county archivist, West Sussex Record Office, said: “The Ralph
Ellis Archive is one of the highlights of our collections, and I am delighted that this publication will enable many more people to discover and explore his fascinating story.
“He was man of Sussex who returned from the war to train at the Slade School of Fine Art and lived in Arundel until his death in 1963. He went on to establish his reputation as a portrait and landscape painter but is arguably best known locally for his intricate and beautiful inn signs.”
The original memoir in five volumes is held at West Sussex Record Office with the archive of the Royal Sussex Regiment.
The Great War Memoir of Ralph Ellis, Sussex Artist and Soldier, is now on sale to the public and can be ordered through the Sussex Record Society website: https://www. sussexrecordsociety.org/
The cost is £45 or £40 for members.
A gallery of images from the book can be viewed at: www.sussexrecordsociety. org/ellis-gallery/. You can find out more about attending the Record Office by visiting www.westsussex.gov.uk/ ro. If you are interested in information about joining the Sussex Record Society and finding out about their work, you can visit www. sussexrecordsociety.org/
The Sussex Record Society was founded in 1901 and has published more than
100 books on Sussex history based on original archives held at the West Sussex Record Office, the East
Sussex Record Office, the British Library, The National Archives and elsewhere in the UK. Topics cover every aspect of life in the county including the life of St Richard, bishop of Chichester, tribulations of 18th century paupers, county government during the Civil War and struggles of Victorian commoners.