Passchendaele 29 October 1917. Frank Hurley.
Australian War Memorial A.N. E01220
Private Elisha Andrews
1st Battalion, the Devonshire Regiment.
Killed in Action
Date of Birth: 1885
Place of Birth: Teignmouth, Devon
Date of Death: Died 4 October 1917 in France, aged 32.
Buried: Tyne Cot Cemetery; remembered on Seafront Memorial and St. James’ Church Memorial Window, Teignmouth, Devon
Awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal
Private Elisha Andrews age 32. Born in 1885 and baptised at St. Michaels Church on 7 February 1886, the son of Elisha, builder, and Ann of 10 Boscawen Place, Teignmouth. In 1891 Elisha is living with his parents and siblings at 11 Northumberland Place, his father is a master builder running his own business.
In 1901 and 1911 he is still living here with his family and is working as a carpenter for his father. He married Beatrice Florence Milton in Teignmouth in April 1911.
Elisha enlisted at Exeter with the Devon Yeomanry and later served with 1st Battalion, Devonshire Regiment, service number11813. We know he entered the war in France on 22 September 1915. Elisha was serving with this regiment when he was reported missing during the action at Passchendaele and presumed as having died on 4 October 1917. Later identified by his two identity discs in 1921 he was reburied in Tyne Cot Cemetery; remembered on Seafront Memorial and St. James’ Church Memorial Window, Teignmouth, Devon.
A total gratuity of £18.11s.10d was paid to his widow in 1918 and 1920.
“Mrs Andrews received news her husband Elisha is missing. Nothing had been heard from him for several weeks. News arrived last Saturday that he was missing since 4 Oct. Previously in Devon Yeomanry and a sniper. He had been in Salonika where he had contracted malaria, whilst home on leave he had spent time in Exeter and Seaton hospitals. Recently went to France. Wife is daughter of Mr Mrs Milton of Bitton St.” Teignmouth Post - 9 November 1917
Devonshire Regiment
cap badge
The following announcement was placed in the Teignmouth Post on 2 August 1918 many months after Elisha was posted missing.
“Mrs Andrews of Boscawen Place received news that her husband Elisha of Devon's, previously in Yeomanry is dead , had been missing since 4 Oct. Left with 2 little girls, she is daughter of Mr and Mrs Milton of Bitton St. Parents of Elisha are Mr and Mrs Elisha of Northumberland Place. Their eldest son Sgt Jack Andrews is in Canada on aircraft construction. And other son Cpl Tom Andrews is on active service.”
The Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele)
This was one of the bloodiest campaigns fought on the Western Front.
It was made up of a series of battles and attacks between 31 July to 10 November 1917.
It started to rain heavily during the afternoon of the first day of the battle.
The rain then continued, quickly turning the war-torn landscape into a quagmire, thousands of men and animals drowned in the mud.
I died in hell, They called it Passchendaele.
Soldier poet Siegfried Sassoon
Hundreds of thousands of men died on both sides.
The bodies of more than 35,000 men from the battle were never found, they were lost in the mud.
