Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Second Lieutenant E. R. Kelly, Border Regiment, attached Lancashire Fusiliers, who was killed in action on the Western Front on 7 July 1915 aged just 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), mounted for display in a contemporary metal cross frame; Memorial Scroll ‘2nd. Lt. Edward Rowley Kelly The Border Regiment’, light foxing to scroll, the medals extremely fine (5) £500-£600

Edward Rowley Kelly was born in South Stoneham, Hampshire, in 1897, the son of Lieutenant Edward Kelly, R.N., and was educated at Hitchin Grammar School and St. John’s, Leatherhead, from where he won a scholarship to read history at Merton College, Oxford. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Border Regiment on 27 January 1915, and served with the 3rd Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front from 8 June 1915. Subsequently attached to the 2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, he was killed in action by a shell during 3 days of heavy fighting to repel a German counter-attack at Pilkem, three miles north of Ypres, on 7 July 1915. During this action the battalion suffered 7 officers and 79 other ranks killed, and 10 officers and 220 other ranks wounded or missing.

Kelly’s Commanding Officer later wrote: ‘I have made inquiries from the N.C.O.s and men of his platoon and from what I can gather he was killed by a shell and was buried in the hole made by the shell which struck him. He was such a cheery youth and we all like him immensely, ands he got on very well with his men. He was very young and boyish- too young in fact for this work, but he was very plucky and did his work well.’ He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.

Sold with copied research, which includes transcribed extracts from the recipient’s diary and his last letter home, and a photographic image of the recipient.