Edward Ellison

1st posting so hello, excellent forum .
My Mother informed me that my great Grandfather served in South Africa and she believes he was a boy soldier at Woolwich in the early 1870's and had left the army by 1888 and was living in Plumstead, employed at Woolwich Arsenal ,so if her memory (at 93 )is right he may well have served in natal.
Edward Ellison, possibly Royal Artillery .Any information would make her day.

Hi 07mrperkins .
Welcome to the forum , I've had a quick look through the Medal Roll and sorry to say I didnt see an E. Ellison listed in any of
the R.A. lists .
cheers 90th.

Hi, i had a look at a couple of genealogy sites at the family.
1911 Census gives edward born.circa 1860, married to elizabeth b.c 1863, six kids jane/edward joseph/william ernest/elizabeth daisy/florence/frederick b.c1905, address 5 bowling green road woolwich. working at woolwich dockyard.
1901 census is the same address but only 5 kids.
1891 census gives edward b london city road and elizabeth b Brecon wales, one child Jane b.c 1890 at plumstead, the address is 58 redhaven road plumstead.
Edward probably married Elizabeth Jones in the district of Bethnal Green in Oct/Dec 1888
Edward was probably born july/sept 1853 in the district of east london [ this is london city the place Cripplegate]
1861 census gives edward's father as William b.c 1822 shoreditch married to jane b.c 1822 westminster with the 1871 census aswell there are 8 children born over the period 1843 to 1865 some of these die as children.
1861 address is spitalfields and 1871 Bethnal Green.
Edward and his brother Joseph are both missing from the family in the 1881 census
A Edward that fits appears as a private in the Royal Marine Light Infantry at the R|M barracks Chatham
A Joseph appears in the Army service corps over the period 1877 to 1889, this Joseph appears in the 1901 census married to Hannah also working at the woolwich dockyard.
Unfortunately i cannot find any connection to the Zulu War or the Royal Artillery, but two Ellison's do appear in the 24th Regiment during the Zulu War
H Ellison 1st Battalion 24th Regiment killed in action at Isandhlwana zululand 22nd January 1879
j Ellison 2nd battalion 24th Regiment
These were not Edward's bothers, one coincidence is that his wife was born in Brecon which was the UK headquarters for the 24th regiment.
Hope you find this all interesting
regards rai
keynshamlighthorse

Guys thanks for your assistance. That's the chap alright , I did some searching on the records at Kew and he was in the Marines but did enlist at Woolwich. So that covers the confussion with the RA , on the service record it shows that he was posted at one point to Egypt so the wrong end of the continent.
Bags of information though that I'll pass on to Mum who still lives only a couple of 100 yards from the Reidhaven Road address. That should suprise her.