Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Ellice, Charles Hay
ELLICE, Sir CHARLES HAY (1823–1888), general, born at Florence on 10 May 1823, was second son of General Robert Ellice, the brother of the Right Hon. Edward Ellice [q. v.], secretary at war, by Eliza Courtenay. Having passed through Sand- hurst, he was commissioned as ensign and lieutenant in the Coldstream guards on 10 May 1839. He served in Canada in 1840-2, and became lieutenant and captain on 8 Aug. 1845. He exchanged to the 82nd foot on 20 March 1846, and to the 24th foot, of which his father was colonel, on 3 April. He went with that regiment to India in May, but was aide-de-camp to his father (commanding the troops in Malta) from 17 March 1848 to 3 March 1849, and so missed the second Sikh war. He was promoted major on 21 Dec. 1849, and lieutenant-colonel on 8 Aug. 1851. On 28 Nov. 1854 he became colonel in the army.
The 24th was at Peshawar when the Indian Mutiny broke out. On 4 July 1857 Ellice was sent to Jehlam with three companies of it, some native cavalry, and three guns, to disarm the 14th Bengal native infantry and other troops. He arrived there on the 7th, and finding they had already mutinied, he attacked and routed them, though they numbered about a thousand men. He was dangerously wounded in the neck, right shoulder, and leg. He was mentioned in despatches, received the medal, and was made C.B. on 1 Jan. 1858.
On 3 June 1858 he was given the command of the second battalion of the 24th, which he raised. He went with it to Mauritius in March 1860, bnt exchanged to half-pay on 8 July 1862. On 25 May 1863 he was appointed to a brigade in the Dublin district; on 8 March 1864 he was transferred to Dover; and from 1 Sept. 1867 to 30 June 1868 he commanded the south-eastern district. He was promoted major-general on 23 March 1865, lieutenant-general on 28 Sept. 1873, and general on 1 Oct. 1877. He was quartermaster-general at headquarters from 1 April 1871 to 30 March 1876, and adjutant-general from 1 Nov. 1876 to 31 March 1882. In the latter capacity he carried on a correspondence in 1877-8 with the governors of Wellington College, in which he represented the view of many officers of the army that the college was being diverted from its original purpose. The correspondence was published, and a commission of inquiry followed. Ellice was made K.C.B. on 24 May 1873, and G.C.B. on 15 April 1882. The colonelcy of the first battalion of the Berkshire regiment was given to him on 7 Sept. 1874, and he was transferred to the South Wales Borderers (formerly 24th) on 6 April 1884.
He died at Brook House, Horringer, Bury St. Edmunds, on 12 Nov. 1888. In 1862 he married Louisa, daughter of William Henry Lambton, brother of the first Earl of Durham. He left one daughter, Eliza (d. 1899), married to Henry Bouverie William Brand, first Viscount Hampden [q. v. Suppl.]
[Times, 13 Nov. 1888; Burke's Landed Gentry; Records of the 2lth Regiment, 1892.]