| The History of Coagh booklet lists Corporal H Kelly as having served with the Royal Marine Artillery in the war.
|
|
| Hugh Kelly was the youngest son of Hugh and Rose Kelly. Hugh Kelly and Rose McNally were married about 1878.
|
| Hugh Kelly was born on 29th July 1892 in Ardboe. He was the youngest of eight children.
|
| Family: Hugh Kelly, Rose Kelly, Maggie Kelly (born 25th November 1878), Daniel Kelly (born 3rd June 1880), Edward Kelly (born 25th December 1881), Mary Ann Kelly (born 26th November 1883), Catherine Kathleen Kelly (born 28th October 1885), Elizabeth Lizzie Kelly (born 6th January 1888), Patrick Kelly (born 15th May 1890), Hugh Kelly (born 29th July 1892).
|
| The 1901 census lists Hugh as age 8, living with the family at house 12 in Dromore, Killycolpy, County Tyrone. They were a farming family.
|
| The 1911 census does not list Hugh as living with the family at house 8 in Dromore, in Ardboe.
|
| Hugh Kelly enlisted with the Royal Navy in 1911 in Belfast. He was 18 years old.
|
| In a newspaper report from June 1915, it was stated that Gunner Hugh Kelly was on H.M.S. Cochrane, which was one of the ships involved in the Falklands area.
|
| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 5th June 1915: Ardboe Patriot Wounded
|
|
| Hugh Kelly, Dromore, Ardboe, has been notified that his son, Daniel Kelly, 1st Battalion, Irish Guards, has been wounded on 18th May in Flanders. In a letter home to his parents, he says:-
|
| ‘The Irish Guards were advancing under heavy shot and shell fire, and on top of dead Germans. It was an awful day’s fighting. I received a German bullet right through my right breast and shoulder. I am going on the Red Cross ship to Sheffield Hospital. I had a very narrow escape. The Germans will get now what they deserve since Italy has begun. I have done my share and if I live to get back I will do the same and more if required.’
|
| In a later letter he says he is progressing favourably, and the nurses are very kind to them. Daniel Kelly enlisted in the Irish Guards on 11th May 1901, during the South African War, at the early age of eighteen years. His father bought him out of the army when the war was over. At the outbreak of the present war he enlisted again on the same (the Irish Guards) and he has been in the trenches since the 14th December. He formed one of the storming party with Sergeant Mike O’Leary at the gallant charge at Guinchy. His brother, Gunner Hugh Kelly, is on HMS Cochrane, one of the ships in the Falkland’s Fight.
|
|
| Hugh Kelly served with the Navy from the beginning of the war up until March 1918.
|
| Corporal Hugh Kelly then volunteered for land service and joined a siege battery in Belgium.
|
| A newspaper report from September 1918 notes that he had went through the war without injury.
|
| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 14th September 1918:
|
|
| Corporal Hugh Kelly, Royal Marine Artillery, son of Mr Hugh Kelly, Dromore, Coagh, is at present home on furlough. He joined the Royal Navy in 1911, and from the beginning of the war up to March of this year was in active service at sea. He then volunteered for land service and has been on duty with a siege battery in Belgium since then. He has so far escaped hurt and is a most cheerful optimist and looking very fit.
|
| Corporal Hugh Kelly was discharged in 1923, his length of service being completed.
|
 |
