exceptionally wet ground conditions of the autumn 1917, he pressed Haig to use massed tanks on the drier, open ground at Cambrai. On 20 November 1917 he personally led 350 tanks into battle at Cambrai in a Mark IV tank called Hilda, named after a favourite aunt. Elles continued to command the Tank Corps until Germany's surrender in November 1918. Later career After the war, he commanded the Tank Corps Training Centre from 1919 to 1923 and was Inspector of Tank Corps at the War Office. He then commanded the 9th Infantry Brigade being posted to HQ Eastern Command as Chief of Staff in August 1926. In 1930 he was appointed Director of Military Training at the War Office and then, in 1933, became General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division, a Territorial Army formation, for a few months. In April 1934, he was appointed Master-General of the Ordnance in the rank of lieutenant general; he was also the head of the Mechanisation Branch for which his previous service made him particularly suitable. He retired in 1938 and was Civil Defence Commissioner for South West England during the Second World War. Elles was married three times, his first two wives dying before him. He died in London on 11 July 1945. References |- 1880 births 1945 deaths British Army lieutenant generals People educated at Clifton College Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Royal Engineers officers British Army personnel of the Second Boer War British Army generals of World War I British Army generals of World War II Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Commanders of the Order of the Crown (Belgium) Recipients of the Croix de guerre (Belgium) Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley Military personnel of British India