C. Hamilton Ellis
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{more citations needed|date=December 2013}}
{{Infobox person
|name = C. Hamilton Ellis
|image =
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|birth_name = Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1909|6|29|df=y}}
|birth_place =
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1987|6|29|1909|6|29|df=y}}
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|known_for = Railway painter and author
|education = Westminster School
|alma_mater =
|employer = British Railways
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Cuthbert (Chip) Hamilton Ellis FRSA{{cite news
|title=Deaths: Ellis
|url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/newspaperRetrieve.do?sort=DateAscend&docLevel=FASCIMILE&prodId=TTDA&tabID=T003&bookId=&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchId=R1¤tPosition=1&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28tx%2CNone%2C23%29cuthbert+hamilton+ellis%3AAnd%3ALQE%3D%28da%2CNone%2C23%2906%2F13%2F1987+-+08%2F13%2F1987%24&retrieveFormat=MULTIPAGE_DOCUMENT&bucketSubId=&inPS=true&userGroupName=lancs&hilite=y&docPage=article&nav=prev&docId=IF500491455&searchTypeName=BasicSearchForm&contentSet=LTO
|accessdate=30 December 2017|newspaper=The Times
|date=1 July 1987|page=17|url-access=subscription
}} (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.{{cite web |url= http://www.steamindex.com/library/ellis.htm |title= Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis |author= Kevin Jones |date= 8 October 2012 |accessdate= 5 December 2013}} He published the first of his 36 books, mostly on railway subjects, at the age of 21.
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.
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".{{cite news
|title=Mr Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis (obituary)
|url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/newspaperRetrieve.do?sort=DateAscend&docLevel=FASCIMILE&prodId=TTDA&tabID=T003&bookId=&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchId=R1¤tPosition=2&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28tx%2CNone%2C23%29cuthbert+hamilton+ellis%3AAnd%3ALQE%3D%28da%2CNone%2C23%2906%2F13%2F1987+-+08%2F13%2F1987%24&retrieveFormat=MULTIPAGE_DOCUMENT&bucketSubId=&inPS=true&userGroupName=lancs&hilite=y&docPage=article&nav=next&docId=IF502611314&searchTypeName=BasicSearchForm&contentSet=LTO
|accessdate=30 December 2017|newspaper=The Times|date=29 July 1987|page=14|url-access=subscription
}} As a knowledgeable railwayman he appeared in the 1968 TV documentary 4472: Flying Scotsman{{cite web
|url= https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2751550/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_1 |title= 4472: Flying Scotsman (1968) |work= IMDb
|accessdate= September 17, 2016
}}{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/people/52/16.shtml |title= Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis |work= Archive - People |publisher= BBC |accessdate= September 17, 2016 |archive-date= October 23, 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151023080319/http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/people/52/16.shtml |url-status= dead }} and appeared twice in the BBC TV game show Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? in railway themed episodes.{{cite web
|url= https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5207086/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_2 |title= British Railways |work= IMDb |publisher= IMDb.com, Inc.|accessdate= September 17, 2016
|url= https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5198942/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_2 |title= Railways and Railway Architecture |work= IMDb |publisher= IMDb.com, Inc.|accessdate= September 17, 2016
}}
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.{{Cite web
|title=Dandy Hart
|website=Kirkus Reviews
|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/hamilton-ellis/dandy-hart/
}}
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". He was an early member and for some time Vice-President of the Historical Model Railway Society.
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).
He has paintings in the National Railway Museum, the Royal Logistic Corps Museum and the Museum of Island Railway History{{cite web |title=Ellis, Cuthbert Hamilton 1909-1987 |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artists/ellis-cuthbert-hamilton-19091987/search/keyword:ch-ellis--referrer:global-search/page/1/view_as/grid |website=Art UK |access-date=21 August 2023}} on the Isle of Wight. The National Portrait Gallery holds two photographs of him, both taken in the 1960s.{{cite web
|url= http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp86970/cuthbert-hamilton-ellis
|title=(Cuthbert) Hamilton Ellis (1909-1987), Railway historian and artist
|publisher=National Portrait Gallery, London |accessdate= September 17, 2016
}} Includes both images
Publications
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|title=Highland Engines and their Work
|isbn=
|year=1930
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=The Grey Men ... Illustrations by Gilbert Dunlop
|isbn=
|year=1939
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=The Engineer-Corporal. A story of the American civil war
|others=Terence Cuneo (illus.)
|isbn=
|year=1940
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Rails across the Ranges
|isbn=
|year=1941
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Who wrecked the Mail?
|others=Terence Cuneo (illus.)
|year=1944
}}
- {{Cite book
|title=The Trains we Loved
|year=1947
|author=Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Dandy Hart
|publisher=Victor Gollancz
|year=1947
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Nineteenth Century Railway Carriages in the British Isles
|publisher=Modern Transport Publishing
|year=1949
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Some Classic Locomotives
|isbn=
|year=1949
}}
- {{Cite book
|title=Four Main Lines
|publisher=Allen & Unwin
|isbn=004385012X
|year=1950
|author=Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=The Beauty of Old Trains
|isbn=
|year=1952
}}
- {{Cite book
|title=The Midland Railway
|isbn=0711005516
|year=1975
|origyear=1953
|publisher=Ian Allan
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=The South Western Railway
|publisher=George Allen and Unwin
|year=1956
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=A Picture History Of Railways
|series=Hulton's Picture Histories
|publisher=Hulton Press
|year=1956
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Famous locomotives of the world
|publisher=Globe Books
|year=1957
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=A Picture History of Ships
|publisher=Hulton
|year=1957
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Trains and Tractors
|publisher=Allen & Unwin
|year=1957
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Twenty locomotive men
|publisher=Ian Allan
|year=1958
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=The Young George Stephenson
|others=William Randell (illus.)
|series=Famous childhood series
|publisher=Parrish
|year=1959
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=The North British Railway
|isbn=
|year=1959
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=British Railway History
|volume=1830–1876
|publisher=Allen & Unwin
|year=1959
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=British Railway History
|volume=1877–1947
|publisher=Allen & Unwin
|year=1959
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|title=Cars and Trains
|author2= John Peter Roberts
|year=1959
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Rapidly Round the Bend
|year=1959
|publisher=Parrish
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Royal journey: A retrospect of royal trains in the British Isles
|publisher=British Transport Commission
|year=1960
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=The Beauty of Railways
|publisher=Parrish
|year=1960
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Model Railways 1838-1939
|publisher=Allen & Unwin
|year=1962
|isbn=0043850138
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Flying Scotsman, 1862-1962
|publisher=Allen & Unwin
|isbn=0043850111
|year=1962
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Popular Carriage: Two Centuries of Carriage Design for Road and Rail
|publisher=British Transport Commission
|year=1962
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=The Splendour of Steam
|isbn=0043850162
|publisher=Allen & Unwin
|year=1965
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Railway Carriages in the British Isles from 1830 to 1914
|isbn=0043850146
|publisher=Allen & Unwin
|year=1965
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|title=The History of the Great Northern Railway, 1845-1922
|author2=H. V. Borley
|year=1966
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Railway history
|publisher=Dutton Vista
|year=1966
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=The Engines That Passed
|isbn=0043850448
|publisher=Allen & Unwin
|year=1968
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=The Pictorial Encyclopedia of Railways
|publisher=Paul Hamlyn
|year=1968
}}
- {{Cite book
|title=London, Midland and Scottish. A Railway in Retrospect
|isbn=0711000484
|publisher=Ian Allan
|year=1970
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=King Steam. Selected railway paintings and drawings by C. Hamilton Ellis
|editor-first=George |editor-last=Perry
|isbn=
|year=1971
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
|isbn=071100269X
|year=1972
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Railways : A Pictorial History of the First 150 Years
|isbn=0856900087
|publisher=Peebles Press
|year=1974
|url-access=registration
|url=https://archive.org/details/railways00cuth
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Ships : a pictorial history from Noah's Ark to the U.S.S. United States
|isbn=0856900079
|publisher=Peebles Press
|year=1974
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=British Trains of Yesteryear
|isbn=0711005494
|year=1975
}}
- {{Cite book
|title=Royal Trains
|isbn=0710082932
|year=1975
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=Steam railways
|publisher=Book Club Associates
|year=1975
}}
- {{Cite book
|title=Railway Art
|isbn=0904069109
|publisher=Ash & Grant
|year=1977
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
}}
- {{Cite book
|author=C. Hamilton Ellis
|authorlink=C. Hamilton Ellis
|author-mask=2
|title=The Lore Of The Train
|publisher=Nordbok
|year=1977
}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Art UK bio}}
- {{cite web | url=http://www.steamindex.com/library/ellis.htm| website=Steamindex | last=Jones | first=Kevin | title=Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis | date=10 December 2010 | accessdate=30 December 2017}} (Substantial compilation of sourced information about Ellis including an obituary from Railway World, and details and reviews of his books)
- {{IMDb name|5555726|name=Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, C. Hamilton}}