C. Hamilton Ellis
Birth nameCuthbert Hamilton Ellis
Birth date29 June 1909
Death date29 June 1987 (aged 78)
Known forRailway painter and author
EducationWestminster School
EmployerBritish Railways

Cuthbert (Chip) Hamilton Ellis FRSA[1] (29 June 1909 – 29 June 1987) was an English railway writer and painter. He was an Associate of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

He attended Westminster school and is reported to have briefly been at Oxford.[2] He published the first of his 36 books, mostly on railway subjects, at the age of 21.[2]

During 1940 Ellis was sent to Switzerland by MI6 under the guise of reporting for Modern Transport to organise saboteurs, but is reported not to have made contact with his handlers.[2]

Ellis covered a broad range of railway subjects in his books, the best-known of which is The Trains we Loved (Allen & Unwin, 1947). His obituarist in The Times commented that his Railway Carriages in the British Isles from 1830 to 1914 (1965, revised from an earlier book) "despite its near-obsession with matters lavatorial and ablutory ... was an epoch-making work".[3] As a knowledgeable railwayman he appeared in the 1968 TV documentary 4472: Flying Scotsman[4][5] and appeared twice in the BBC TV game show Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? in railway themed episodes.[6][7]

He also wrote a small number of novels, such as The Engineer-Corporal (1940) and Dandy Hart (1947). Both of which were fictional, somewhat "voluble [and] long winded", and deeply based on an interest in railway operations, which was also assumed in the reader.[8]

He had an interest in model railways: his 1962 book Model Railways 1838-1939 was said by The Times to have "led the way in charting the early history of this ... hobby".[3] He was an early member and for some time Vice-President of the Historical Model Railway Society.[3]

His 1959 humorous book Rapidly Round the Bend was described as "[doing] for railways what Sellers[sic] and Yeatman had done for general history" (a reference to the authors of 1066 and All That).[3]

He has paintings in the National Railway Museum, the Royal Logistic Corps Museum and the Museum of Island Railway History[9] on the Isle of Wight. The National Portrait Gallery holds two photographs of him, both taken in the 1960s.[10]

Publications

  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1930). Highland Engines and their Work
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1939). The Grey Men ... Illustrations by Gilbert Dunlop
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1940). The Engineer-Corporal. A story of the American civil war
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1941). Rails across the Ranges
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1944). Who wrecked the Mail?
  • Hamilton Ellis (1947). The Trains we Loved
  • Hamilton Ellis (1947). Dandy Hart. Victor Gollancz.[8]
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1949). Nineteenth Century Railway Carriages in the British Isles. Modern Transport Publishing.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1949). Some Classic Locomotives
  • Hamilton Ellis (1950). Four Main Lines. Allen & Unwin. OCLC 8330303
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1952). The Beauty of Old Trains
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1975 [1953]). The Midland Railway. Ian Allan. ISBN 0711005516.
  • Hamilton Ellis (1956). The South Western Railway. George Allen and Unwin.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1956). A Picture History Of Railways. Hulton's Picture Histories. Hulton Press.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1957). Famous locomotives of the world. Globe Books.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1957). A Picture History of Ships. Hulton.
  • Hamilton Ellis (1957). Trains and Tractors. Allen & Unwin.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1958). Twenty locomotive men. Ian Allan.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1959). The Young George Stephenson. Famous childhood series. Parrish.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1959). The North British Railway
  • Hamilton Ellis (1959). British Railway History. Vol. 1830–1876. Allen & Unwin.
  • Hamilton Ellis (1959). British Railway History. Vol. 1877–1947. Allen & Unwin.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis & John Peter Roberts (1959). Cars and Trains
  • Hamilton Ellis (1959). Rapidly Round the Bend. Parrish.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1960). Royal journey: A retrospect of royal trains in the British Isles. British Transport Commission
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1960). The Beauty of Railways. Parrish.
  • Hamilton Ellis (1962). Model Railways 1838-1939. Allen & Unwin. OCLC 8690106
  • Hamilton Ellis (1962). Flying Scotsman, 1862-1962. Allen & Unwin. OCLC 4849733
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1962). Popular Carriage: Two Centuries of Carriage Design for Road and Rail. British Transport Commission.
  • Hamilton Ellis (1965). The Splendour of Steam. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0043850162.
  • Hamilton Ellis (1965). Railway Carriages in the British Isles from 1830 to 1914. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0043850146.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis & H. V. Borley (1966). The History of the Great Northern Railway, 1845-1922
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1966). Railway history. Dutton Vista.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1968). The Engines That Passed. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0043850448.
  • Hamilton Ellis (1968). The Pictorial Encyclopedia of Railways. Paul Hamlyn.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1970). London, Midland and Scottish. A Railway in Retrospect. Ian Allan. ISBN 0711000484.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1971). King Steam. Selected railway paintings and drawings by C. Hamilton Ellis. Perry, George (ed.)
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1972). London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. ISBN 071100269X.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1974). Railways : A Pictorial History of the First 150 Years. Peebles Press. ISBN 0856900087.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1974). Ships : a pictorial history from Noah's Ark to the U.S.S. United States. Peebles Press. ISBN 0856900079.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1975). British Trains of Yesteryear. ISBN 0711005494.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1975). Royal Trains. ISBN 0710082932.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1975). Steam railways. Book Club Associates.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1977). Railway Art. Ash & Grant. ISBN 0904069109.
  • C. Hamilton Ellis (1977). The Lore Of The Train. Nordbok.

References

  1. ^ "Deaths: Ellis". The Times. 1 July 1987. p. 17. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  2. ^ Kevin Jones (8 October 2012). "Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis". Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  3. ^ "Mr Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis (obituary)". The Times. 29 July 1987. p. 14. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  4. ^ "4472: Flying Scotsman (1968)". IMDb. Retrieved September 17, 2016.
  5. ^ "Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis". Archive - People. BBC. Archived from the original on October 23, 2015. Retrieved September 17, 2016.
  6. ^ "British Railways". IMDb. IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved September 17, 2016.
  7. ^ "Railways and Railway Architecture". IMDb. IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved September 17, 2016.
  8. ^ "Dandy Hart". Kirkus Reviews
  9. ^ "Ellis, Cuthbert Hamilton 1909-1987". Art UK. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  10. ^ "(Cuthbert) Hamilton Ellis (1909-1987), Railway historian and artist". National Portrait Gallery, London. Retrieved September 17, 2016. Includes both images
  • Jones, Kevin (10 December 2010). "Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis". Steamindex. Retrieved 30 December 2017. (Substantial compilation of sourced information about Ellis including an obituary from Railway World, and details and reviews of his books)
  • Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis at IMDb