Wallace Ellison papers

This material is held atUniversity of Leeds Special Collections

Reference
- GB 206 Liddle Collection RUH 20
Dates of Creation
- 1911-1965
Name of Creator
- Ellison, Wallace
Language of Material
- English
Physical Description
- 3 boxes; manuscript, typescript, photographs, postcards, press cuttings, printed material, and a map Includes tickets and German banknotes

Scope and Content

Tourist map of Frankfurt (n.d.); Soldier's prayer card (Aug. 1914); Christmas dinner menu (Dec. 1914); Christmas card (Dec. 1914); Letter written to his father from Ruhleben (10 Mar. 1915); Letter from Raymond Eggelston (1 Dec. 1915); 2 editions of magazine In Ruhleben Camp (27 June 1915, 29 Aug. 1915); Bound copies of The Ruhleben Camp Magazine (Mar. 1916-June 1917); 2 editions of magazine The Ruhleben Camp Magazine (Apr. 1916, Aug. 1916, June 1917); Publication The Ruhleben Bye-Election (1915); Ruhleben Horticultural Society Membership Card (1916-1917); Letter to his father from H. Armstrong relating to his escape from Germany (31 Dec. 1917); Letters to Miss Beatrice Kelsey (12-16 May 1918); 6 large photographs (n.d.); 2 scrapbooks of press cuttings (1918-1919, 1928-1929); Miscellaneous press cuttings relating to Ruhleben (1917-1934); 2 tickets for public lecture "My Escape From Germany" by W. Ellison at Colwyn Bay (15 Feb. 1918); German banknotes (1917-1918); Portrait sketch (n.d.); 2 bound typescript plays "The Lone Game" and "Love and the Enemy" (n.d.); Poster for "My Escape From Germany" by W. Ellison at Colwyn Bay (15 Feb. 1918); Magazine The Great War... I Was There! (n.d.); Offprints of article "The German People and the War" by W. Ellison from The Wheatsheaf (n.d.); Advertisement for book Escapes and Adventures by W. Ellison from Blackwood's Advertiser (n.d.); Manuscript dinner menu (n.d.); Published illustrations (n.d.); Letter from Frances Stevenson relating to Ellison's escape (30 Nov. 1917); ca. 120 letters from W. Ellison, mainly to his family (2 June 1911-23 Nov. 1917); Typescript letter to Karl Abshagen (1 May 1964); Typescript letter to James Gordon (25 Jan. 1965); 2 photograph albums, relating to Stadvoigtei and Ruhleben camps (n.d.); 140 photographs and postcards (1914-1919).

Administrative / Biographical History

Wallace Ellison, Lecturer in Economics at Frankfurt University at the outbreak of war, was arrested in Aug. 1914 whilst returning to England and held at Sennelager Camp before being released. As a British Civil Prisoner of War, he was interned at Ruhleben, from Nov. 1914, living in Barrack No. 13. He attempted to escape in 1915 and was held at Stadvoigtei Prison, from where he also tried to escape in Oct. 1916. He was returned to Ruhleben and successfully escaped to Holland, Oct.-Nov. 1917. Then he served as a secret agent on the German-Swiss border until the end of the War.