Brother George (Hugo) Clement Ellis, C.S.C. (1901-1974)

Epaulets

oil on canvas

1968

The bright uniform on display in “Epaulets” reveals Brother Hugo Ellis’s status as an anglophile and a military buff with an extraordinary memory for detail. In fact, Brother Hugo was on campus in 1943 when the high school metamorphosed into St. Edward's Military Academy and was designated a "Training and Research Unit" of the Texas National Guard. Brother Hugo was a supply officer with rank of first lieutenant, though he is described as “a great buff of military matters but in real life a man of peace.”

Dunn, William C.S.C., Saint Edward’s University: A Centennial History (Austin: Saint Edward’s University Press, 1968), 241.