William Kelly was born in Whitechapel, Middlesex, London at the end of 1898 the oldest child born to William Kelly and Alice Emma Crawley. His mother was previously married to Byron Campbell and as a result, William had three older half-siblings who were, Katherine and Alice Campbell and Arthur Cook. His parents produced another child in who was named George Frederick, meaning Alice had five children in all. William’s mother Alice had first married Byron Campbell in London in 1883, but sadly Byron died in 1891 followed a year later by their second child Alice. His mother then met William Cook and bore him a child Arthur, born in 1894, but again tragedy befell Alice when William Cook died in December eleven months after Arthur’s birth. Not long afterwards Alice met William’s father William snr. with whom she had her last two children born in 1896 and 1900.

There are no records of marriages between Alice and William Cook or William Kelly and indeed, William Kelly disappears from view by 1901 and does not return. As a result in the early 1900’s Alice returned to her native Hemel Hempstead and went to work in Apsley Mills for John Dickinson & Co., Ltd as a “Mill Hand”. Three of her children came to Hemel with her, Arthur, William and George who on the 1911 Census were recorded as Campbell. Their mother Alice was always known as Campbell, giving further weight to the suggestion she did not marry either William Cook or William Kelly. On the Census return Alice also states that she had seven children in total of which three died, meaning that two other children not named on records were born at some point.

Arthur was always known by his Campbell surname whilst the two youngest boys William and George where always Kelly. The family lived at 3 Glenview Gardens, Hammerfield in Hemel Hempstead and this is where Alice died aged sixty-five in 1927, with her son Arthur present on his thirty-third birthday. William finished his schooling in 1911 and went out to work following is half-brother Arthur into G. B. Kent and Sons Ltd. at the Apsley Brush Works. He remained there until he went to volunteer when he reached his eighteenth birthday and was old enough to join the Colours.

He travelled to Bedford to attest and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment and was posted for basic training. When he went overseas at the end of 1917 he was posted to the 4th Battalion Bedfords. His first serious action came in March the following year when he fought in the opening engagements of the First Battles of the Somme 1918, at St. Quentin and Bapaume when the battalion suffered very heavy casualties. After a period of rebuilding the fighting strength of the unit, William fought in the Battle of Albert between the 21st and 27th August and it was during this engagement that he was mortally wounded. He was taken out of the line to a Casualty Clearing Station, but nothing could be done, and he sadly succumbed to his injuries.

William died of his wounds at 56 Casualty Clearing Station on Wednesday, 28th August 1918.

He was commemorated on the War Memorial Plaque in St Francis of Assisi Church just opposite on the street where the family lived, and on the War Memorial Plaque in the church of St. John the Evangelist in Boxmoor. He was also commemorated on the War Memorial Plaque in G. B. Kent and Sons Ltd. where he worked before going to war.

William is Remembered with Honour in Bagneux British Cemetery, Gezaincourt, Somme, France, where he is interred in Grave V. B. 31. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his mother Alice, reads: “GONE FROM OUR HOME BUT NOT FROM OUR HEARTS”

He was only 19 years old when he died.

William was entitled to the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.