Death of tennis stalwart Joe Ellis (From York Press)

Death of tennis stalwart Joe Ellis

11:40am Wednesday 2nd May 2012 in Tennis

JOE Ellis, a leading York tennis and table tennis player in the 1950s and 1960s has died in York hospital after a short illness. He was 91.

York-born Ellis was an apprentice joiner for York Corporation after leaving school and then served in the RAF during the Second World War, being stationed in Burma and India from 1942/46.

He was a member of Tang Hall Tennis Club where he won the Founders Cup in 1948 with Bill Shaw and with Jack Senescall in 1953. He also partnered Shaw in the York Municipal Tournament and they were runners-up in the men’s doubles to Jim Shields and Leslie Leppington.

Ellis was also a keen table tennis player being a member of Tang Hall TCC and also Railway Institute, representing York in the Yorkshire League.

He spent many hours fishing and was also a member of the Heworth local history group.

Ellis’s wife, Mary, died last year and he is survived by daughters Barbara and Susan and son David.

The funeral service will be held at Heworth Methodist Church on Wednesday, May 9 at 11.30am.