Prime Minister pays tribute to former Hartlepool barman who was last soldier killed on day of First World War Armistice

A wreath has been placed on the final resting place of a First World War hero believed to have been a barman in Hartlepool.
Prime Minister Theresa May at the St Symphorien Military Cemetery in Mons, laying a wreath at the grave of George Ellison, the last British soldier to be killed before Armistice in 1918. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday November 9, 2018. See PA story MEMORIAL Armistice May. Photo credit: Gareth Fuller/PA WirePrime Minister Theresa May at the St Symphorien Military Cemetery in Mons, laying a wreath at the grave of George Ellison, the last British soldier to be killed before Armistice in 1918. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday November 9, 2018. See PA story MEMORIAL Armistice May. Photo credit: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
Prime Minister Theresa May at the St Symphorien Military Cemetery in Mons, laying a wreath at the grave of George Ellison, the last British soldier to be killed before Armistice in 1918. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday November 9, 2018. See PA story MEMORIAL Armistice May. Photo credit: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

George Edwin Ellison was the last soldier killed in the Great War before peace was declared in 1918.

The 40-year-old, who was a father-of-one, served with the Royal Irish Lancers.

The message on a wreath that Prime Minister Theresa May placed at the grave George Ellison, the last British soldier to be killed before Armistice in 1918, at the St Symphorien Military Cemetery in Mons. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday November 9, 2018. See PA story MEMORIAL Armistice May. Photo credit: Gareth Fuller/PA WireThe message on a wreath that Prime Minister Theresa May placed at the grave George Ellison, the last British soldier to be killed before Armistice in 1918, at the St Symphorien Military Cemetery in Mons. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday November 9, 2018. See PA story MEMORIAL Armistice May. Photo credit: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
The message on a wreath that Prime Minister Theresa May placed at the grave George Ellison, the last British soldier to be killed before Armistice in 1918, at the St Symphorien Military Cemetery in Mons. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday November 9, 2018. See PA story MEMORIAL Armistice May. Photo credit: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
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He was shot on the outskirts of the town of Mons in Belgium, just 90-minutes before the Armistice brought an end to the war.

Mr Ellison was from Leeds but it is undertsood he spent time as a barman in Hartlepool before he joined the army in 1902.

He is buried in the St Symphorien Military Cemetery near Mons, in a grave facing that of John Parr, who was the first British soldier killed in the First World War.

A wreath has been placed on his grave by Prime Minister Theresa May ahead of Armistice Day in a ceremony where she was joined by Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel.

The message read: “They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted ... We will remember them.”