Noel Ellis

The son of Cornelius Stanley Ellis (1894–1948)^[1] and Amy Gertrude Ellis (1894–1982), née Christensen, Arthur Noel Ellis was born on 9 July 1921. He had two brothers: Paul and Graeme.

He attended Wesley College on St Kilda Road.^[2]

Ellis played for Wesley College's First XVIII^[3] and, at the same time, was playing for Collegians Football Club.^[4][5]

In 1940, "Noel Ellis was outstanding at centre half-back with Collegians, in the Victorian Amateur Football Association, [who] transferred to the Demons when the amateurs suspended their competition halfway through the season [due to the war]" (Sporting Globe, 24 August 1940).^[6]

Ellis's application for a permit to play with South Melbourne was refused by the VFL Permit Committee, on 26 June 1940 – on the precedent-setting grounds that, as a boarder at Wesley College, Wesley College (rather than his parents' residence at Red Cliffs, Victoria) was deemed to be his official place of residence – and, so, given the physical location of Wesley College (on the eastern side of St Kilda Road), Ellis was residentially bound to Melbourne. The VFL Permit Committee granted him a clearance from Old Collegians to Melbourne.^[7]

Ellis participated in his first practice at Melbourne the following evening.^[8] He was selected as 19th man in his first First XVIII match for Melbourne, against Hawthorn, on 24 August 1940 (round 17).^[9] He also played for the First XVIII in the first two matches of the 1941 VFL season (against Fitzroy,^[10] and South Melbourne).

Ellis was injured while playing for Melbourne against Carlton in the first round of the Patriotic Premiership (1941), at the M.C.G., on Saturday, 24 May 1941,^[11] and did not play again.

He played cricket at Wesley College^[12] and South Melbourne Cricket Club.^[13]

He enlisted in the Second AIF in October 1941 – V185010.^[14][15]

Only 20 years of age (three days before he turned 21), Ellis was accidentally shot and killed,^[16] by a mishandled revolver, at a World War II military camp in Queensland.^[17][18][19]

The soldier who fired the weapon, Lieutenant Mervyn David Henry (VX101968),^[20] had been talking to Ellis in the mess tent when the incident occurred.^[21][22]

The Melbourne First XVIII wore black armbands in their match against Carlton, on 11 July 1942, as a mark of respect for the memory of Ellis.^[23]

• List of Victorian Football League players who died on active service