209631 A/Lt.Col. John Sherwood Kelly VC, DSO, MID.British Army att. 1st Btn Royal Iniskilling Fusiliers Norfolk Regiment from:South Africa Jack Sherwood Kelly was wounded four-times-wounded with a combat record going back to the 1896 Matabele Revolt. At 16 he fought in Matebeleland. He joined the Cape Mounted Police and was at the Relief of Mafeking, South Africa. He joined the Somaliland Burgher Corps fighting the "Mad Mullah" in Somaliland. In 1906 he toko part in the Zulu Rebellion. He married Nellie and prior to the outbreak of the First World War, he was housemaster at Langley School and a member of the Territorial Army.
At Gallipoli, he commanded a regular army Scottish battalion. He was 37 years old, and an Acting Lieutenant-Colonel in the Norfolk Regiment, British Army, Commanding the 1st Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers when he was awarded the VC.
"On 20th of November 1917 during the Battle of Cambrai at Marcoing, France, when a party of men were held upon the near side of a canal by heavy rifle fire, Lieutenant Colonel Sherwood Kelly at once ordered covering fire, personally led his leading company across the canal and then reconnoitered, under heavy fire, the high ground held by the enemy. He took a Lewis gun team, forced his way through obstacles and covered the advance of his battalion, enabling them to capture the position. Later he led a charge against some pits from which heavy fire was coming, capturing five machine-guns and 46 prisoners."
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