Elers was born at Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury Square and grew up living in Filkins Hall.

[2] At the age of eight, he attended a school in Chiswick[3] for a time until he fell ill with measles and the head, a Mr. Crawford, died of dropsy.

[4] At the age of fourteen, he developed an attachment with his cousin, Sophia, whom he spent a holiday with in Oxford, but she did not accept his advances and died of tuberculosis a short time after they parted.

He would later recall in his memoirs how he had many a chance to save the woman, but British policy of none-interference meant that he would have faced scandal had he tried to do so.

[8] Fearing that the Tipu Sultan would not accept new regulations that were being enforced, the 12th Foot was moved to a military base called Arnee.