Elles entered the Royal Artillery in 1867 and was promoted to colonel in 1891. He was Assistant Quartermaster-General at Headquarters in India (intelligence branch) when he was in November 1893 appointed Deputy Quartermaster-General Bengal.[1] In 1900 he was promoted major-general. He served in Egypt and India, including the Indian Frontier, and was appointed a district commander in Peshawar on 18 October 1895.[2] Following the outbreak of the Second Boer War in late 1899, Sir William Nicholson (then Adjutant-General in India) was posted to South Africa, and Elles was appointed acting Adjutant-General on 4 January 1900.[3][4] In December 1900 he was appointed to command a First class district in India (possibly Secunderabad district),[5] but was replaced four months later, in April 1901,[5] after he had been appointed an Ordinary Member of the Council of the Governor-General of India in March 1901.[6] In January 1903, he was made a Knights Commander of India (KCIE).[7] He was promoted Lieutenant-general 1907, and retired from the army in 1908.[4]
^ ab'ELLES, Lt-Gen Sir Edmond (Roche)’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007