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According to official records the last British soldier to be killed in World War One was Private George Edwin Ellison from Leeds.

He was 36-years-old at the outbreak of war and was there from the start fighting with the 5th Royal Irish Lancers.

He saw his comrades injured and killed in Ypres and on the Somme, he fought in the first gas attack but he survived until the very last day.

On the morning of 11 November 1918, just after 5am; British, French and German officials gathered to sign a document which would bring an end to WW1. And yet the ceasefire would not come into effect until six hours later so that troops on the frontline would be sure of getting the news that the fighting had stopped.

That same morning Private Ellison of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers was scouting the outskirts of the Belgian town of Mons, where German soldiers had been reported in a wood.

At 9.30am a shot rang out and George was dead.

He left a wife and a 4-year-old son, who turned 5 a few days after George鈥檚 death.

Location: Saxton Gardens (formerly Edmund Street), Leeds LS9 8HW
Image: George Ellison (centre) featured in a newspaper at the time
Presented by Andrew Edwards

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