Second Lieutenant Edward Rowley KELLY (Did not matriculate)

3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Border Regiment, attached to Lancashire Fusiliers
Born 1897 in South Stoneham, Hampshire
Killed in action 7 July 1915, aged 17
Commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, West Flanders, Belgium. Also commemorated on the Hitchin Grammar and St John’s school war memorials.

Edward Kelly was the only son of Lieutenant Edward Kelly (RN) and Ethel Kelly, of ‘Dalmally’, Carshalton Park Road, Sutton, Surrey.

He was educated at Hitchin Grammar School, and St John’s, Leatherhead.

He was commissioned on 27 January 1915 and sent to France in June.

He was killed 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.

His Commanding Officer later wrote:

He was such a cheery youth and we all liked him immensely, and 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.