Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War A.F.C. group of seven awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel E. J. Kelly, South African Air Force

Air Force Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated 1944; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Africa Service Medal, the campaign awards all officially named ‘203121 E. J. Kelly’; Efficiency Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue, Union of South Africa (No. 203121 Lt. Col. E. J. Kelly S.A.A.F.) good very fine (7) £1,200-£1,600

A.F.C. London Gazette 1 January 1944.
The original recommendation states: ‘Captain E. J. Kelly started as a Charter Pilot and qualified as an Instructor in 1937. Since then he has been employed on instruction, with the exception of a period when he served as an Operational Pilot in East Africa. Both as an Instructor and as an Operational Pilot he has shown undoubted ability. His devotion to duty has at all times been worthy of mention.’

Edward James Kelly was born in Mbabane, Swaziland on 28 January 1915, and was educated at Witwatersrand University, studying Mining and Metallurgy, before being employed as a pre-War Charter Pilot at Johannesburg Light Aeroplane Club. He qualified as a Flying Instructor with the South African Air Force on 11 June 1937, and was commissioned Captain on 1 August 1940. He served during the Second World War with Nos. 2 and 11 Squadrons, South African Air Force, in East Africa from 2 November 1940, and, following the liberation of Addis Ababa, was involved in the attacks on the remaining elements of the Italian Air Force, taking part in the raid on the Italian stronghold of Dessie on 6 April 1941:
‘The Italians had been retreating to Dessie, to the north of Addis Ababa, through country where just a single road cut through solid mountain, reaching 11,000 feet high at Mussolini Pass. No landing ground could be found in this area, and the nearest at Combolchia was still in Italian hands and nearly 250 miles from the capital. Dessie had been the scene of considerable military activity since the fall of the capital. The Duke of Aosta’s forces were using it as a base to prepare the last bastion to the north- Amba Alagi’s solitary heights where the Viceroy was to make his last stand.
On the morning of 6 April 1941, the mountains lay clear. No storms raged in the passes as the bombers and their escort passed over to their targets. There were 22 attacking aircraft. The first wave of attackers, led by Captain E. J. Kelly, took off from Jijigga at 06:40 hours, followed ten minutes later by the second wave; each aircraft carried 52 20-pound fragmentation bombs.
On arrival over Combolchia aerodrome the leader of the first wave, Kelly, observed an enemy fighter landing and two more about to take off. Although it was five minutes before the time ordered for the attack he dived down, destroyed the aircraft landing, and damaged the other two.’

Returning to South Africa in June 1941 as an Instructor at 23 and 27 Air Schools, Kelly subsequently served as Chief Flying Instructor at the Empire Central Flying School, U.K., from November 1943, and was advanced to temporary Lieutenant-Colonel on 15 November 1944. He relinquished his commission in March 1946, and was killed in a car accident in Mbabane in 1956.