South Yorkshire Times, July 22nd, 1944
A “Dorsetshire” survivor, Marine Leslie Ellis, (24), grandson of Mr. and Mrs. William Ellis, of 60, Winterwell Rod, West Melton, was married a short time ago at St. Paul’s Church, Durban, South Africa, to Miss Doris Riley, an English girl who lives in South Africa.
Marine Ellis has been in the Service for eight years and was in action in H.M.S. Dorsetshire when she helped to sink the German battleship “Bismark.” Sometime later the Dorsetshire was sunk and Marine Ellis was picked up after floating for two days and a night on a raft of wreckage, without food. He was taken to a hospital and three months later was shipped to South Africa. Rowley Wilson of Albert Road, West Melton, who enlisted in the Marines with him, along with Mark Frost of Winterwell Road, was killed outright when the “Dorsetshire” was sunk, and in a letter to his grandparents after the sinking, Marine Ellis said that if he had been with his friend down below, instead of on deck, he himself would have had no chance to escape. Mark Frost had left the ship some time before and was later reported missing and then killed.
Marine Ellis, who is an old pupil of Wath National School, was previously goalkeeper for Darfield Bridge team. He had four swimming certificates. One of his red-letter days was the coronation of our King and Queen, when he was one of the Marines chosen to form a guard of honour for the royal procession.