SACRIFICED COMMAND

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 3372, 1 October 1931, Page 2

SACRIFICED COMMAND

DEATH OF V.C. WHO WAS COURT-MARTIALLED. Promoted from the ranks on the field for bravery; awarded the V.C. for a fearless and daring exploit; court-martialled and severely reprimanded after figuring in a sensational incident—these are some of the outstanding features in the adventurous life of Lieut. Col. John Sherwood Kelly, 51, who has died in a Kensington nursing home. He had been suffering for some time from the after-effects of malaria contracted during his service in the Far East, and had been in the nursing home for two or three weeks. Colonel Sherwood Kelly, who was educated at St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown, joined the Rhodesian Police when he was 17. He afterwards served in the South African campaign, and for his bravery was promoted on the field and mentioned in despatches. He had clasps to his Queen's Medal and two clasps to his King's Medal. When the Great War broke out he had retired into private life. He enlisted in the ranks under an assumed name, but was given a commission and in 1915 was commanding a battalion in France.

At the time Col. Sherwood-Kelly earned the Victoria Cross he was an acting-colonel of the Norfolk Regiment but commanding a battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. In announcing the award the "London Gazette on January 11, 1918, stated that it was for jnost conspicuous bravery and fearless leading when a party of men of another unit detailed to cover the passage of the canal by his battalion were held up on the near side of the canal by heavy rifle fire directed on the bridge. LieutCol. Sherwood-Kelly at once ordered covering fire, personally led the attacking company of his battalion across the canal, and, after crossing, reconnoitred under heavy rifle fire and maohirie-gun fire the high ground held by the enemy. The left flank of his battalion, advancing to the assault of this objective, was held up by a thick belt of wire, whereupon he crossed to that flank, and with a Lewis gun team forced his way under heavy fire through the wire, thereby enabling them to capture the position.

Later, Col. Sherwood-Kelly personally led a charge against some pits from which a heavy fire was being directed 'on his men, captured the pits, together with five machine guns and 46 prisoners, and killed a large number of the enemy. The report ends:— The great gallantry displayed by this officer throughout the day inspired the greatest confidence in his men, and it was mainly by his example and devotion to duty that his battalion were enabled to capture and hold their objective. In the war he was wounded five times and mentioned five times in dispatches, and, in addition to the V.C, was awarded the C.M.G. and the D.S.O. After the Armistice he commanded the 2nd Hampshire Regiment in Northern Russia, and on his return to England in 1919 he wrote a letter to the Press strongly criticising the military operations there. He suggested that troops sent for relief purposes only "were being used for offensive purposes on a large scale and far in the interior, in furtherance of some ambitious plan of campaign the nature of which we were not allowed to know."

"My personal experience of those operations," he said, "was that they were not even well conducted, and that they were not calculated to benefit in a military or any other sense a sound and practical British policy in Russia. I saw British money poured out like water and invaluable British lives sacrificed in backing up a worthless Government, and I became convinced that my duty to my country lay not in helping to forward a mistaken policy, but in exposing it to the British public." Intense excitement was aroused by the publication of this letter, and Col. Sherwood-Kelly was removed from his command at Archangel. He was placed under arrest for contravening the King's Regulations by writing to the Press on military matters. The same day he was released "without prejudice." On Otetober 28, 1919, the colonel was court-mar-tialled at the Middlesex Guildhall, and pleaded guilty to contravening the King's Regulations. He contended that the offence was purely technical, and correspondence was produced to disprove the suggestion of insubordination in Russia.

"Loyalty to the throne is with me a paramount ideal," he said. "I have sacrificed everything to carry those ideals into action. I have nothing left but a soldier's honour, so I plead with you to believe that the action I took was to protect my men's lives and to save the country from squandering wealth she could ill afford."

By order of the court, Col. Sher-wood-Kelly was severely reprimanded. A few weeks later he, until then a major, relinquished his commission "on completion of service," and was granted the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

In 1923 and 1924 Col. Sherwood-

Kelly unsuccessfully contested the Clay Cross division of Derbyshire in the Conservative interest. At one of his meetings a heckler called him a liar, and when the man refused to withdraw the epithet the colonel thrashed him and threw him out of the hall.

Col. Sherwood-Kelly's fighting record for the Empire is a remarkable one, and he was the illustrious descendant of a fighting family. His father was a soldier, and both his grandfathers were soldiers, his paternal grandfather having taken part in the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War. He was an intrepid hunter of big game, a keen horseman, and a skilled exponent of tennis, cricket, Rugby and golf.