Auction Catalogue

19 & 20 July 2017

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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Lot

№ 310

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19 July 2017

Hammer Price:
£750

Three: Second Lieutenant E. R. Kelly, Border Regiment attached 2nd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, who as a “boy soldier” was killed in action at Pilkem Ridge, 7-8 July 1915, aged 17

1914-15 Star (2.Lieut. E. R. Kelly. Bord. R.); British War and Victory Medals (2.Lieut. E. R. Kelly.); Memorial Plaque (Edward Rowley Kelly) this housed in a solid oak frame; Memorial Scroll (2nd. Lt. Edward Rowley Kelly The Border Regiment), extremely fine (5) £300-400

Edward Rowley Kelly was born on 18 September 1897 in South Stoneham, Southampton, Hampshire, the only son of the late Lieutenant Edward Rowley Kelly, Royal Navy, and was educated at Hitchin Grammar School, Hertfordshire, and St. John’s College, Leatherhead, where he represented the school at football. In December 1914, he won an exhibition in history to Merton College, Oxford, but never took up his place there. He volunteered underage at the end of the Winter term in 1914, was commissioned Second Lieutenant on 27 January 1915, and was posted to 3rd Battalion Border Regiment. He served during the Great War on the Western Front from 8 June 1915 and was posted on attachment to the 2nd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, joining his unit on 15 June 1915. He was killed in action on 7-8 July 1915 at Pilkem Ridge, repelling a German counter-attack. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium. He is also commemorated on Hitchin Grammar School’s War Memorial Window, St. John’s College, Leatherhead, War Memorial, the Merton College, Oxford, War Memorial, Carshalton War Memorial and All Saints Carshalton War Memorial.
According to Major W. Bowes, commanding the 2nd Battalion, “I have made enquiries from the N.C.O.s and men of his platoon and from what I can gather he was killed by a shell and buried in the hole made by the shell that struck him…He was such a cheery youth and we all liked him immensely, and he got on well with the men. He was very young and boyish – too young in fact for this work, but he was very plucky and did his work well.”

The 2nd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers War Diary refers:
“Owing to very severe fighting in the last three days and the heavy casualties among officers and men, no connected narrative is to hand. Casualties on these three days were officers killed - 7 (including E.R. Kelly), wounded – 10. Other ranks killed – 79, wounded – 201, missing – 19.”

One of Edward Kelly’s last letters home refers:
“The chief drawbacks to the trench system are the lack of sleep (one is lucky to get three or four hours at a stretch, and I hate sleeping on and off) and the lack of washing accommodation. I got two washes and one shave in four days and was the envy of the company for getting so' much. However, it is a jolly fine life and I feel fitter than ever I did. I had my platoon-serjeant killed on Tuesday morning; it was my first case and I can't say I felt very cheery about it. The sight of death is all right, but it was the hour between the time he was hit and the time he died that was rather trying We have just come out of the trenches and are now in dug- outs about a mile away from the firing-line. We are not by any means out of range, as some of our men have found to their cost. I suffered my first scar in the campaign this morning when I cut myself while shaving, but am otherwise 'all present' and more or less 'correct’.”

Sold together with a photographic image of the recipient.