1st/6th Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment
Ellis James (Jack) Workman was born in Gloucester in 1889, one of three children born to Elia and Alice Mary Workman. A printer by trade, he attested for four years service in the Territorial Force (TF) at Stafford on 16 September 1914 and joined the 1/6 North Staffordshires. On 5 March 1915 he embarked with the battalion for France. For reasons unknown, he returned home on 13 May 1915 and appears to have been given a training role, being promoted to Lance-Corporal in February 1916.
He returned to France on 3 July 1916, probably part of a reinforcement draft, to replace the 350 casualties suffered by the 1/6 North Staffordshires at Gommecourt on 1 July 1916. The winter of 1916/17 was particularly harsh on the Western Front. On 3 February 1917 Jack became ill and was repatriated, to 3rd Western General Hospital, Cardiff, suffering from nephritis (inflammation of the kidneys). The condition persisted and on 11 November 1917 he was discharged from the Army as ‘physically unfit, due to nephritis’. The medical report stated that his condition originated from 3 February 1917, in France, the ‘result of active service exposure to wet and cold’.
Jack was granted an Army pension but died on 24 February 1919, age 29 and was buried in Gloucester Old Cemetery, in a family plot. The original headstone stated that he had ‘passed away after much suffering’. In later times the CWGC erected one of their standard headstones to ensure that he is remembered for posterity.