100 Stories > Alfred Ellison (1893-1983)

Sandy, as Alfred was known, was in the Territorials at the start of the war and he was to fight in the Gallipoli campaign. He said he was the last man to witness the death of Burnley VC winner Victor Smith (see previous post).

He later served on the Western Front where the sketch was made and sent home as a Christmas greeting.

Sandy was temporarily blinded by mustard gas but recovered to survive into his eighties. He once attributed his surviving the war to carrying the skull of a dead Gurkha in his kitbag.