Ethel May Malcolm was the fourth child of Emily Miller and George Malcolm born 2 October 1867 in Southsea, Hampshire, England.

Ethel married Dr. Nicholas Elrington in 1894 in Essex County. Nicholas, born in 1865 in Great Saling, Essex, was the son of Vicar Thomas William Elrington and Isabella Fenwick. He attended Felsted School, near his home in Great Saling, and then went on to receive medical degrees in 1893, the year before he married. He was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians.

During World War I he served as a surgeon at the Wethersfield VAD Hospital in Braintree, Essex. The hospital was also the family’s home, Wethersfield Hall. VAD stood for Voluntary Aid Detachment – a hospital run by civilians to provide nursing care for wounded soldiers.

Wethersfield Hall, Wethersfield, Essex, where the Elringtons lived for many years and
where the VAD hospital operated during World War I.

Ethel served as well, as part of the British Red Cross, taking over all the cooking at the hospital. Ladies of Wethersfield also worked there as volunteers, nursing, cleaning and running the hospital. The hospital was only in operation from May 1914 to May 1915.

Nicholas and Ethel had eight children between 1895 and 1909: Dorothea, Maurice Malcolm, Mordaunt, Maxwell M., Isabella Frances, Barbara Malcolm, Ruth and Elizabeth Reby. In 1901 Ethel’s widowed father, Colonel George Malcolm, was staying with them at Wethersfield Hall, not far from Halstead, where he and his wife Emily had lived. Nicholas died in 1939 in Middlesex County and Ethel in 1946 in Sussex County.

One of their sons, Brigadier General Mordaunt Elrington, served in France during World War I. During World War II he took part in the Battle of Pasir Panjang in 1942, part of the final stage of the Japanese Imperial's invasion of Singapore during World War II. He ended up in a POW camp in Seoul, South Korea, and was later freed by the American forces. After retirement, he lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he was an Assistant Headmaster and teacher at the Santa Fe Preparatory School.

Another son, Brigadier Maxwell M. Elrington, 1899-1945, served in the Border Regiment. He was killed by a mine 23 April 1945 while commanding the 71st Infantry Brigade.