Roy Charlton Elliott was born in Tynemouth, Northumberland on 14 January 1923, the son of Christopher Charlton Elliot and his wife Margaret Elliott (née Ridley).

He was appointed Temporary Midshipman, Royal Naval Reserve, on 25 August 1939 and appointed to the armed merchant cruiser HMS DERBYSHIRE on 23 November 1939, serving there until December 1941 and then joined the destroyer HMS VENOMOUS from April 1942 until the end of May 1943, having been promoted to Acting Sub Lieutenant on 14 January 1943.

On 29 May 1943, he joined HMS SARACEN in the Mediterranean and was onboard for the twelfth and thirteenth (and final) patrol. On 14 August 1943, SARACEN was forced to surface following depth charge attacks by the Italian corvettes MINERVA and EUTERPE off Bastia, Corsica. The crew abandoned ship and all except two were rescued and became Prisoners of War.

Roy Elliott is reported to have died on 15 March 1944 whilst an escaped Prisoner of War in Italy. He had been sent to Rome with the other officers from SARACEN but is understood to have broken away from a prison-camp party being marched through the streets of Rome and made his way to the Vatican City where he was interned, and he lived there with companions in relative freedom. It is thought that he suffered from nightmares after his experiences in the attacks on and loss of SARACEN. After one of these, he rushed from his bed in a panic, crashed through a window, and fell three storeys to his death on the flagstones below.

Roy Elliott is buried in the Rome (Testaccio) Protestant Cemetery in Rome in Plot D.3.11.