Kelly’s 12 Christmas Days – No 11, London 1939

The Kelly family spent the first Christmas of the Second World War together at their new home in Paddington, having left Jersey the previous year as the storm clouds of WW2 gathered.

Kelly may have been almost 70 at the end of 1939 but his mind was turning to the war and, in particular, how he could serve the British Crown once more. He initially volunteered for service with the Royal Navy but was rejected on grounds of his age so he turned his attention to the Merchant Navy instead. By February 1940 he was on board the SS Madura as Ship’s Surgeon and would soon find himself being dive-bombed in Bordeaux harbour.

He spent almost the whole of WW2 at sea.

The Kelly story is told in Fighting for the Empire.

Follow his remarkable life through 12 Christmas Days.

Next: Come back tomorrow!

Previous: No 10, Jersey 1936