William Charles Kelly

William was born on 29 December 1887, the son of William Kelly.  William was born in 1848 and married Fanny Sarah Stuart on 18 September 1883.  Grandfather was also William and born on the Isle of Man to another William and Catherine Cowley.  His grandfather married Elizabeth Ann Gould in 1840 in Adelaide.

William was the only son, and went to Gould Creek on the death of his grandfather in 1891.  He attended Prince Alfred College and upon graduation helped his father with the running of their property.   His parents had been living at Gould Creek, One Tree Hill but later his mother moved to 5 Melbourne Street, North Adelaide and then to 37 Strangeway  Terrace, North Adelaide after her husband’s death in 1915.

William Charles was 28 years old when he enlisted in the A.I.F  just before Christmas 1914. He was one of the first to enlist.   However he had been in the Citizen Forces for 18 months and two years in the A.I.F. Light Horse as a Commissioned Officer.   He was appointed as a second Lieutenant in January 1915 and placed in the 3^rd Light Horse Regiment.  The 3rd Light Horse Regiment was raised in Adelaide on 17 August 1914. Although most of its recruits were enlisted in South Australia, one of the regiment’s three squadrons was composed of Tasmanians and was raised and trained in Hobart. The two components sailed from their home ports in late October 1914 and arrived in Egypt in the second week of December.  Here, they joined the 1st and 2nd Regiments to form the 1st Light Horse Brigade.

The 1st Light Horse Brigade deployed to Gallipoli without its horses and landed there on 12 May 1915, joining the New Zealand and Australian Division. The 3rd Light Horse played a defensive role throughout the campaign and was in reserve when its sister regiments attacked as part of the August offensive. It left Gallipoli on 14 December 1915.

He was promoted to Lieutenant in August 1915.  He went to Gallipoli on 19 May 1915 and after some time there he became ill with Influenza and was sent to Blue Sisters Hospital on Malta.  In September he was invalided to England on the “PLASSY”.  He was admitted to the London General Hospital at Wandsworth on 13 September 1915.  He was transferred to a supernumerary list of Officers on 13 December 1915.

Two weeks into the New Year he sailed back to Alexandria on the “IONIC” and re-joined his regiment in the war.  He became sick with typhoid and admitted to hospital in Kantara.  On June 30^th he was discharged and returned to duty.  On 19 August 1916 he received gunshot wounds to the thigh and the knee joint at Bir-el-Aba  and was admitted to hospital at Abbassia.  He was recommended for three months change to Australia and sailed on H.S. “KANOWNA” from Suez.

At the end of January 1917 he embarked for the Middle East from Freemantle on the “CLAN MacCORQUODALE” and returned to duty with the 3^rd Light Horse on 8 May 1917. 

With the capture of Gaza, the Turkish position in southern Palestine collapsed. The 3rd Light Horse Regiment participated in the advance to Jaffa that followed, and was then committed to operations to clear and occupy the west bank of the Jordan River. It was involved in the Amman (24-27 February) and Es Salt (30 April-4 May) raids and the repulse of a major German and Turkish attack on 14 July 1918.  He was killed in action on 14 July 1918 and buried at Abn Tallul, Jericho by Chaplain J.H. Bates.  The site was later re-named the Jerusalem War Cemetery.

His mother later requested his Memorial Plaque.  His leather cabin trunk containing among many other items a German revolver and holster, one Bedouin knife and one Turkish watch, and was returned to Australia on the “WILTSHIRE”.  His family received the British War Medal, the Victory Medal and the 1914/15 Star.  He is named on the Memorial outside the Institute Hall at One Tree Hill.

He was a great lover of animals, a keen sportsman and a genial, kind hearted gentleman.

An article written by William was printed in the Register newspaper on Saturday 24 July 1915 page 11, detailing his experience in the war.

Work in the Trenches.
Lieut. W. C. Kelly -wrote on June 4:—

'We are right in the thick of it, and I am writing with rifles cracking and bullets whizzing all around. We had a rough time the first two weeks.  In fact for the first three days we never slept, and during the fortnight we never took our clothes or equipment off, not even our boots, and a wash was out of the question.  Even now we only get a wash about once a week when we chance to get down to the beach, for water is scarce.  Our infantry have done wonderful work.  When you see the places they have rushed with the bayonet you would think it impossible for any of them to be alive at all.

Through the whole show they have hardly given back an inch of ground.  In one place the other morning the Turks blew up and then charged one of our trenches. They took it by force of numbers, but not one of our chaps ran away. They were carried but later on though, poor chaps.  We were in support or that trench that morning, and had to re take it with a bayonet charge.  Not a Turk got away, but 20 surrendered when we got up.  The Turks don't mind the English or French so much, but the Australians and Ghurkhas they live in dread of.  Of the two last they prefer the black Ghurkhas.

There was an armistice the other day to bury the dead, and they needed it. In one place outside our trenches, on ground 80 by 100 yards, we buried 300 Turks, besides a few of our own.  Some had been there for four weeks.  The country we are fighting on now is very much like Humbug Scrub, with the trees taken out and only, low bushes left.  The soil is much the same too.  I have been very lucky so far, having only been hit through the hat and on the tip of a finger.  Don't think that we are downhearted, because we are not, I don't think you could find a happier or more light hearted crowd on the peninsula than my little lot,' with Bob Papps as star per former.  Ask John Smith who Bob Papps is.'

On June 9 Lieut. Kelly wrote;

Things have quietened a good deal, and we have been able to sleep when not in the firing line. We have 24 hours in the firing line, and 24 hours in the supports. The supports can sleep when there is nothing doing, but the firing line have to keep alert and on the watch the whole time, shooting on any little movement in the enemy's trenches.  In some places the Turks trenches are only 15 ft. away, and there is a bomb fight, going on the whole time. The enemy is pretty good at throwing the missiles. They use a bomb about the size a cricket ball, made of iron, and filled with high explosive, which blows a man to pieces if he happens to be near.  Some or our chaps are expert at catching them and throwing them back; but it is a risky game, and one has to be quick, as the Turks are finding it out, and shortening the fuses.  So now we have every other man armed with, a bag of sand, which he throws over the bomb as soon as it arrives.  This checks the explosion a good deal.  One man the other day thought he would try an experiment, and sat on the sandbag he had just thrown over a bomb.  He did not remain there long, but got blown clean out of the trench on to the parapet. Except for a severe shaking he was not hurt.  

Some Turkish or German officers can speak English, and often converge with us across the trenches when there is a lull in the firing.  They use taunts and threats, such as, 'Come on, you white Ghurkas.  We will give you something to jump about for, you jumping kangaroos'.  I can't say our chaps dont answer them.  The Turks have a nasty habit of shelling us with shrapnel every morning at daybreak. Not that it does very much damage.  The other morning we were called out at 2 o'clock to reinforce a position that was being attacked, and when I got back I found three shrapnel bullets had gone clean through my oil sheet and blankets.  I was glad then that I had been called one, although I did not think so at that time.  

Mine has been the luckiest troop of the lot, so far.  We left Egypt 37 strong, and I can still muster 23; not bad after a month's fighting.  We have had no disease; only one man with measles. All we know is our own Ktt'e show, and we are doing all right. Every scrap we have we can count 10 dead Turk's to one of ours.  They seem to get excited and lose their heads as soon as anything happens.  They are wonderfully armed and equipped, and all the prisoners we have taken are well clothed and seem well fed.  The night before last the Turks attacked from all quarters at 2 o'clock, and made things lively. They were eventually driven off, except from one line of trenches where they gained a footing and stuck until day light, when our chaps made a bayonet charge, and dug them out. When it was all over they had to drag the dead foe out of the trench before they could get in."