Current Information:

Born-Manchester

Enlisted-Barking

Attached from Royal Field Artillery

Railway Chateau Cemetery, Belgium

The Royal Garrison Artillery operated larger and less mobile guns than the Field Artillery. The most common weapon of the Heavy Batteries of the RGA was the 60 pounder (5 inch) guns which were mainly used to destroy the opposition’s artillery as well as targeting strong-points, dumps, stores, roads and railways behind enemy lines. The first heavy batteries to reach the Western Front were attached to infantry divisions but by the middle of 1915 they were being transferred to Heavy Brigades that operated under the orders of individual Army Corps.

John Ella was killed on 17th November, 1914, while serving with the 11th Heavy Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery during the First Battle of Ypres but the exact circumstances of his death are not known. Artillery men faced many dangers and during the course of the war nearly 50,000 of them were killed. Their gun batteries were targeted by the enemy’s guns which accounted for many of their casualties. Others were sent forward to act as ‘spotters’ which meant going forward to the front line and signalling back to the guns necessary changes in target and other vital information. Keeping the batteries supplied with ammunition was a dangerous task as the enemy guns would target the known supply routes, especially at night. Battery Diaries rarely shine any light on casualties sustained, unless of course they were officers and even then information is sparse.