Cyril Elmore Pells, known as Elmore Pells, was born in Beccles, Suffolk, England, on 28th August 1890, the eldest son of Arthur and Caroline Alice Pells (née Martin) of Beccles. He had three brothers, Claude, Arthur and Eric and two sisters, Ethel Maude and Doreen Eleanor. His father was an architect, surveyor, and valuer.
On completing his education, he moved to the village of Ruislip, Middlesex, where he became an apprentice in the optical and scientific instrument trade. In Ruislip, he met Mary Anita Reeves, who was an assistant headmistress in a local school, and they became engaged to be married.
In August 1912, he immigrated to Canada to work as a salesman, and settled in North Lonsdale, Vancouver, British Columbia. His fiancée followed him in March 1914 and they were married at North Lonsdale, British Columbia, on the 22nd April 1914. A son, John Elmore Pells, was born to them on 16th February 1915.
Because of the outbreak of war, Elmore Pells decided to return to England to join the Army and in late April 1915, the family set out from Vancouver, British Columbia, to return home.
They were travelling as second cabin passengers on the Lusitania's final voyage when the torpedo struck. As the ship was sinking, Elmore Pells jumped into the sea with baby John in his arms but the infant was swept out of his grasp and drowned. He and his wife, however, survived.
On their return to England, Elmore Pells received a letter from the mother of Richard Preston Prichard, who was another second cabin passenger, and of whom no trace was found after the sinking. Mrs. Prichard wrote to all the survivors she could obtain names and addresses of, seeking any information about her son .Elmore Pells replied: -
20, Essex Villas,
Kensington, W.
July 11/15
Dear Madam,
Your letter addressed to me at Acton was forwarded to me here.
I am sorry that I am not able to give you any definite information about your son although both my wife & I recognise him from the photograph as being one of the passengers on the Lusitania more than this we cannot tell you.
I feel sure however, your son would not be trapped down below, for my wife & I were at lunch when the vessel was struck & we both went below to E deck (one lower than your son’s deck) to get our baby boy, & also went below again to get lifebelts & although there was a considerable list on the ship & it was difficult to get up the stairs, it was by no means impossible especially for a man.
I think very few of us realised that the vessel would sink so quickly & it was really wonderful how well the passengers behaved, the men were going round comforting the women & helping them on with lifebelts & into the boats & I don’t think there was any shortage of belts most people seemed to have them on.
Unfortunately the boats could not be lowered because of the list & I think only 3 got off safely. When the ship went down the boats were still swinging on the davits & were packed with people many of whom were killed by falling masts, funnels when the boilers “went up”.
I think very few of us expected to come out alive, my wife & I sat on a seat & went down with the ship & after being in the water some time we managed to crawl on to an upturned boat, but we lost our little boy whom I could not hold in the awful swirl & suction.
I am sorry not to be able to give you more information but I have forwarded your letter & the photo to another survivor who may have known your son & who will no doubt write to you.
Please allow us to express our sincere sympathy with you in your terrible loss. I have no doubt but that your son was amongst the men, on deck, who kept their heads & went round helping the women & children.
Yours truly
C. Elmore Pells
No trace of Richard Preston Prichard was ever found.
No doubt this loss fortified his resolve, for eventually; in early 1917, he enlisted as 765308 Private C.E. Pells, in the 1/28th (County of London) Battalion, (Artists Rifles) of The London Regiment. After officer training, however, he was commissioned into The Devonshire Regiment on 28th November 1917.
He joined the 2nd Battalion of this regiment in the field, near Villers Brettoneux, France, on 25th April 1918, and just over one month later, and three years after the Lusitania outrage, he too became a victim of the German war machine when he was killed in action on 27th May 1918. At the time of his death, his home address was shown to be 17, Frederick Road, Stechford, Birmingham, Warwickshire.
By this time, the 2nd Battalion was fighting at the Bois des Buttes north of the River Aisne, following the German breakthrough which had begun in March 1918 and Pells was commanding 14 Platoon of 'D' Company.
In his book Through Hell To Victory: From Passchendaele To Mons With The 2nd Devons, published in 1927, the author R.A. Colwill relates the circumstances surrounding Second Lieutenant Pells' death: -
Another officer who was popular with the Company was Lieut. C.E. Pells. He had, in his heart, bitter hatred for the Germans, for his only child was drowned when they sank the Lusitania. And all that morning he seemed to take fiendish delight in mowing them down with a rifle. He moved about, cheering the men and showing them how to take better cover. Then he was killed.
In a letter written in 1968 by one of Pells' officers, to Lieutenant Colonel U.B. Burke, the adjutant of the Battalion, on the day of the action, more details are given of the young officer's death.
No doubt you remember Lieut. Pells at the Bois des Buttes Action he was my Platoon Officer - No 14 Platoon of "D" Company. When 14 Platoon first opened fire, the Germans were about fifty yards away. We had a marvellous fire position with a gentle slope down from us to them. They had obviously been instructed to take us by storm, for they were literally pouring out from scrub at the foot of the slope. Their losses must have been terrific, for quite soon there was a ridge of their dead at this point. The oncoming Germans were attempting to climb over their dead comrades, but such was our fire that they dropped like flies and not one came up that slope. By this time our losses were getting pretty heavy. Lieut. Pells had grabbed a rifle and ammunition from a dead man. He was lying next to me on my left. He was firing like blazes and was shouting at the top of his voice to the few of us who were left, "Keep up your fire, Keep up your fire.
Then his voice was, suddenly no more and he slumped against my left foot. The Germans were too close for me to be able to make a detailed examination, but as I glanced around at him, I saw that he had been shot
through the head. I pressed my left foot gently against him, but he slumped back against me when I took my foot away. I think he was quite dead.
As I resumed firing, two Privates lying on my immediate right were killed - both shot clean through the head.
I decided that this was more than coincidence. Someone was sniping and was picking our fellows off one after the other. I had been missed, I think, because the little man hadn't seen me. I was using a small turf of scrub in front of me as cover.
So I stopped firing, re-loaded and waited with my finger on the trigger.
Soon I "spotted" him. He was obviously a sniper. He was a little away from his comrades and was not firing with them. He was well secreted and camouflaged - even to his face.
I could have shot him straight away, but I wanted to get him through the head as he had Lieut. Pells and the two on my right. After about a minute's wait he took aim at one of our fellows away on my left. In so doing, he presented his head to me very nicely. He never fired that shot. Before he could do so, my bullet had gone clean through his head. He crumpled like a deflated balloon and I was sorely tempted to rush down the slope and to have made sure of this German sniper with my bayonet. But it would have been silly. Firstly, I think he was quite dead and secondly, I doubt whether I would have made it - the fire from both sides was so intense.
I have often thought I would like to send this to you, Sir, because the only fact recorded about him in Mr. Colwill's book is the fact that he was killed. I have often thought that this may well be because no one knew about his actual end.
I would like to second him that Lieut. Pells was much loved and respected by No 14 Platoon, that on the 27th of May 1918 he well maintained the motto of the regiment and that, on that day, he died a noble death.
When we landed at Hull after our captivity in Germany, we were interviewed by the Red Cross. I reported the death of Lieut. Pells. Subsequently, I received a letter from his wife asking whether I could tell her anything about his last moments. I replied to her and put things as tactfully as I could. But it was a difficult letter to write .....
The letter is preserved the archive of the Devonshire Regiment at Wyvern Barracks, Exeter. The motto of the regiment is "Semper Fidelis" - "Always Faithful". After the action at the Bois des Buttes, only one officer, one sergeant and twenty men remained. The rest had been killed or captured. The Battalion was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm by the French Government for its part in the action.
Second Lieutenant Pells' body, like that of his son, was not recovered and identified afterwards and as a consequence, he is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing of the 1918 fighting in the area, at Soissons. He is also commemorated on the town war memorial in Beccles.
Administration of his estate, which amounted to £230-16s.-10d. (£230.84p.), was granted to his widow in London on the 7th June 1919.
The Soissons Memorial register states that he was aged 21 years at his time of death, but this is clearly an error in view of his date of birth. The register also states that he was: - husband of Mary Anita Pells, (née Reeve) (sic.) of San Louis Obispo, California, U.S.A.
However, in 1996, Elmore Pells' nephew, Norman A. Pells, published a family history entitled The Roots and Branches of a Pells Family in which he states that Mary Anita Pells was English, and that after the war she set up practice as a masseuse in New York. As the Soissons Memorial entry would have been made with the assistance of the family, at the time, it is more likely to have been correct, despite the discrepancy over Elmore Pells' age at death.
After his death, his parents returned to ‘Briarwood‘, Waveney Road, Beccles, a house Arthur Pells built himself. His father died in 1927, aged 76 years, and his wife Caroline in 1936, aged 72 years.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, British Columbia Canada Marriage Index 1872 – 1935, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, IWM GB62, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, British Army World War I Medal Rolls Index Cards 1914 – 1920, British Regiments 1914-18, Devonshire Regiment Archive, London Gazette, Roots and Branches of a Pells Family, Through Hell To Victory: From Passchendaele To Mons With The 2nd Devons, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, James Maggs, Stuart Williamson, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.