Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthDecember 17, 1891
Place of BirthKeewatin, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinDavid Kelley, father, Keewatin, Ontario
Trade / CallingShipper
ReligionMethodist
Service Details
Regimental Number460829
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion8th Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Date of EnlistmentJune 2, 1915
Age at Enlistment22
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathDecember 9, 1967
Age at Death75
Buried AtBrookside Cemetery, Winnipeg, Manitoba
PlotMlty-5835-0

Kelley, Albert Edward

Albert Edward (Boswell) Kelley was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on 17 December 1891 although his birth was later  registered in Ontario as the 24th of December. His mother Catherine Jane (Kate) Boswell, born in Liverpool, England, had immigrated to Canada in 1887 along with David Kelley who was later to become Albert’s adoptive father. David had first spent time in New Westminster, British Columbia  with his parents George and Lucy Kelley and brother Edward,  while Kate settled in Keewatin, Ontario; her sister Elizabeth immigrated to Keewatin in 1888 and married David’s brother George. David and George worked for the Lake of the Woods Milling Company in Keewatin. Catherine and David gave birth to a son William Henry Kelley in 1894. In 1897 Catherine died of Brights  disease and is interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora. In 1907 David married Edith Capron and then later married Eleanor Blackwell in 1915 in Winnipeg.

With occupation given as shipper, Albert Edward Kelley signed his attestation papers in Winnipeg, Manitoba on 2 June 1915, birth date given as 18 December 1892. He embarked from Montreal with the Reinforcing Draft of the 61st Battalion aboard the Metagama on 11 September 1915. Once overseas Private Albert Kelley was transferred to the 8th Battalion, arriving in France on 6 January 1916. That September, at the Somme, he sustained shrapnel wounds to the elbow and buttocks. Invalided to England a few days later, he was admitted to the 1st Southern General Hospital in Birmingham on the 29th. In mid December he was transferred to Bearwood Hospital in Wokingham, discharged on the 29th. Due to his injury to his elbow, Albert remained in England for the rest of the war, attached to Headquarters OMFC (Overseas Military Forces of Canada) in London. He arrived back in Canada on 2 July 1919 aboard the Minnedosa and was discharged from service as medically unfit on the 5th in Quebec.

At some point while in England Albert met Constance Winnifred Green. The daughter of Arthur and Edith Green, Constance was born in late 1900 in Leytonstone, East London, Essex. Albert and Constance married during the last quarter of 1918 in the registration district of Pancras, Middlesex.

After the war, Albert and Constance settled in Winnipeg, giving birth to one child, a daughter Myra. Over the years both Albert, and later Constance, worked for Eatons. Predeceased by his father David and stepmother Eleanor in 1938, both in Kenora, his brother William in 1952 in Winnipeg, Albert Edward Kelley died in Deer Lodge Hospital in Winnipeg on 9 December 1967. He is interred in the Military Field of Honour in Brookside Cemetery. His wife Constance died on 8 April 1969.  Albert’s daughter Myra married Rex Keatinge in 1944 in Winnipeg and the couple had one son, Condren Rex. Over the years Myra worked for War Time Prices followed by thirty-one years in the public service of CF Winnipeg, Base Supplies. Predeceased by her husband Rex in in 2001 and son Condren in 2004, Myra died in Winnipeg in 2011.

Albert’s brother William also served during the war, enlisting in Winnipeg in late 1915 with the Fort Garry Horse. He sustained a gun shot wound to the cheek during the latter part of the war and returned to Canada in late 1918.

The town of Keewatin held a celebration in August of 1919, badges and medals awarded to the returned veterans and to the families of the fallen, William John and Albert Edward Kelley included. Their names also are  recorded  on two Keewatin commemorative plaques.

By Judy Stockham

Kelley-Albert-Edward-2 Kelley-Albert-Edward-3 Kelley-Albert-Edward-4 Kelley-Albert-Edward-5 Kelley-Albert-Edward-6 Kelley-Albert-Edward-7

 


« Back To Soldier Biographies