Sir John Whittaker Ellis, 1st Baronet

Biography Born in 1829, Ellis was the fifth son of Joseph Ellis, owner of the Star and Garter Hotel in Petersham, Richmond, Surrey (now London) from 1830 to 1847.

He set up his family in Byfleet, living for many years at Petersham House/Place (built in High Road 1859, its surviving front block is 15 High Road, used as Lloyds Bank and a risk consultancy). After a fire there, Ellis organised Byfleet's first fire brigade. He equipped three of his market/domestic gardeners – the Place had attached 17 acres – with three lengths of hose and an obsolete manual pump, put on wheels, kept in a potting shed.

He was a banking executive, auctioneer and estate agent, as well as holding local government posts including alderman of Broad Street Ward, 1872–1909, Sheriff of London and Middlesex, 1874–75, 553rd Lord Mayor of London, 1881–82, and mayor of Richmond, 1890–91. He was also a magistrate (Justice of the Peace); Governor of the Irish Society, 1882–94, governor of various hospitals and High Sheriff of Surrey, 1899–1900. When that area was abolished he was nominated for and won the 1885 general election and that of the next year for the inceptive Kingston upon Thames seat which took in Richmond but retired in 1892. Hansard records 20 contributions of his, making some each year to 1891 inclusive.

On 6 June 1882 he was made a baronet, of Byfleet in the County of Surrey, and of Hertford Street, Mayfair, in the County of Middlesex, a title which became extinct on his death. He later became the Borough of Richmond's first Mayor, and purchased the site for Richmond's first town hall. In 1899 he was appointed High Sheriff of Surrey for the year. He remarried in 1903, to Marian Bailey.

In 1885, he funded Byfleet Fire Station which would house a volunteer fire brigade. Initially the (civil) parish managed this, renting its building and an engine from Ellis. The building was used until 1963, latterly as part of the Surrey Fire Brigade. The building is little changed and became a Grade II listed building in 2008. 15 High Road, his former front block of the family home, is locally listed, under category "AH", architectural merit.

In 1895 a bust of Ellis was unveiled in Richmond Town Hall by Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck;

He is further commemorated by Whittaker Avenue, Richmond.

Lady Ellis John Whittaker Ellis married, in 1859, Mary Anne Staples, daughter of John Staples.

Publications He circulated pamphlets entitled or concerning: "The Land Question, Government of Ireland etc."