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Arthur Robert Kelsey MM.
British Army Royal Field Artillery
from:Sheffield
Arthur Kelsey was my grandad who fought in WW1 in 49th West Riding Division. He was an Artillery Observer on the front line and gave co-ordinates of the enemy from the trenches. He used to relate stories of how one day, he was to give the co-ordinates of two German soldiers who were having a shave and a cigarette outside a building when in Belgium, over a telephone hand held receiver that he would wind up to relay the message. The next voice stated, "head down Arth", there was a loud whoosh, bang and the two Germans were no longer there, totally obliterated.
He recalled, when in the trenches, a young German soldier jumped into it one day, they both looked at each other in a startled manner, then Arthur plunged his bayonet into the young German's chest and stared in disbelief at the dead young man. He stated how young he looked and felt really sad at what he had done, but it was war and it was him or my granddad.
He was the most gentle man you could ever meet and this must have been a horrific encounter for him to have undertaken. How these men in WWI recovered from this trauma it hard to comprehend. He was sent home before the war ended having been gassed by mustard gas, but he never really spoke must of how he felt as a soldier in the great war. I hold a fairly comprehensive list of his postcard's sent from his locations in the war to reassure my grandma that he was alive and well. He died in his 93rd year in 1987.
