David Ellis

David Ellis was born in Whitstable, the son of a Royal Naval officer. He was educated at The Oratory School at Woodcote near Reading.

He trained as a Cadet at Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth from 1970 to 1971. In 1972 he was promoted to Midshipman and served in HMS Albion and HMS Kellington. In late 1972 he then had a change of heart having met some paratroopers in Belfast, at the time he was serving in HMS Kellington undertaking fishery protection and anti terrorist operations in the seas off Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

He then joined The Parachute Regiment as a private soldier in early 1973, joining 390 Platoon Recruit Company. Having completed his training as a paratrooper including P-Company and the basic parachute course at RAF Abingdon he was posted to The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for officer training joining 11 Platoon, Salerno Company, SMC4.

He was commissioned in 1974 and posted to D Coy 2 PARA based in Aldershot. He completed two tours of duty in West Belfast with D Coy as well as exercises in Malaysia, Germany and the USA.

Following service in 2 PARA, in 1977 on returning from Belfast, he was posted to The Depot The Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces in Aldershot where he was a Recruit Platoon Commander responsible for the training of recruits for the Regiment.

On leaving the Regular Army in 1979 he joined Halliburton and worked with various companies on and offshore in the Oil & Gas industry all over the world. His final job was with BW Offshore working on the 'Catcher' FPSO project in Norway and Singapore.

He served for 16 years with the Territorial Army's 15th (Scottish Volunteer) Battalion The Parachute Regiment as OC B Coy then Battalion Second in Command and following the disbandment of 15 Para he joined 5 Airborne Brigade HQ as a Liaison Officer and Watchkeeper.

His last military parachute descent was into Arnhem in 1999 for the 55th anniversary of the battle. He was awarded the Territorial Decoration.

He retired in 2016 and lives in Aberdeenshire where he sails, skis and potters about with his wife and dogs.