All-rounder Frank Ellaby was associated with Banister Court for most of his sporting life. Despite his diminutive stature, a regular for the Trojans at rugby, he also excelled as a runner and a cricketer. He played several times for the Saints in friendlies, but his only competitive appearance was at outside-left in the Hampshire CCC Charity Cup, when St Mary’s lost 3-1 to the Royal Engineers at the County Ground – their first-ever defeat in any of the county Cup competitions that they had entered. In October 1899, Frank embarked on a globe-trotting career, first travelling to Rangoon, where he is believed to have joined the Burmese Police, and then, in April 1903, to Cape Town, to join the South African Light Horse Regiment.

He returned to Southampton in March 1909, but soon migrated with his family to Canada. On arrival in Calgary, he joined the Corps of Guides, a non-militia part of the Canadian Army Corps, engaged in the collection of military information – a role for which the Guides were required to “be intelligent men… in possession of a horse.” He remained with the Corps during the First World War, after which he became a Land Registry clerk in Calgary. But, ever restless, he soon joined the Union Pacific Railroad in the USA.