Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte 1518
A rare and poignant Great War Gallipoli operations D.S.C. group of four awarded to Australian-born Lieutenant- Commander F. S. “Cleg” Kelly, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, an accomplished composer and Olympic gold medallist, who was decorated for his gallantry as a Company Commander in Hood Battalion, R.N.D.: a friend of Arthur Asquith and Rupert Brooke - he acted as a pallbearer at the latter’s funeral and wrote an acclaimed Elegy to his memory - he was himself killed in action leading a charge on the Ancre in November 1916
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS, G.V.R., hallmarks for London 1916, in its Garrard & Co. case of issue; 1914-15 STAR (Ty. Lieut. F. S. Kelly, D.S.C., R.N.V.R.); BRITISHWAR AND VICTORYMEDALS, M.I.D. oak leaf (Lt. Commr. F. S. Kelly, R.N.V.R.), together with London Olympics 1908 commemorative medallion, generally extremely fine (5)
£6000-8000 D.S.C. London Gazette 6 September 1916:
‘In recognition of services with the Royal Naval Division in the Gallipoli Peninsula.’
Frederick Septimus “Cleg” Kelly was born in Sydney in May 1881, the seventh child of Irish-born woolbroker Thomas Hussey Kelly of Glenyarrah, and quickly displayed a remarkable talent for pianoforte, playing Mozart and Beethoven with great passion ‘before his hands could stretch an octave.’
Sculler and Scholar
No surprises then that he went up to Balliol College, Oxford, as a Nettleship Musical Scholar in 1900, having in the interim attended Sydney Grammar School and Eton.
And while attending the latter establishment he developed yet another marked talent - that of a skilled oarsman who stroked the Eton eight to victory in the Ladies’ Plate at Henley in the previous year. This was in fact, the commencement of a remarkable array of honours won on the river - thus Balliol’s victory in the university Fours in 1900 and 1903 and sensational wins in the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley in 1902, 1903 and 1905. And, as a member of Leander Club crews, he also won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley without break 1903-05, followed by the Stewards’ Challenge Cup in 1906. He then answered a call to row for the English (Veterans) Olympic Eight in the London Games of 1908 - another resounding victory, the crew taking Gold ahead of the Belgians and Canadians, one observer concluding ‘his style cannot ever be surpassed.’
Meanwhile, on the music front, in addition to his duties as President of the University Musical Club:
‘In composition as in playing, Kelly was freeing himself, finding himself - throwing off in his playing some hampering restrictions that had clung to him through long routine and habit of practice, and gaining for his composition not only a greater vigour and freshness in the ideas but a new judgment and discrimination in the use of all resources, particularly those of form. Certain of the “Mongraphs” (a late Opus) and two Organ Preludes may be termed masterpieces of small genre.’
And he became even more absorbed in his music after leaving Oxford, spending much time studying at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, and playing a series of concerts back in Sydney in 1911, when he no doubt caught up on family news with his elder brother William, who held the seat of Wentworth in the Australian House of Representatives.
Otherwise he resided at Bisham Grange, near Marlow in Buckinghamshire, where, with his sister, Mary, he led a happy life occupied with books, endless discussions, tennis and the river and, above all, with strict musical practice. But this idyllic existence came to an abrupt end in August 1914, when, with the onset of hostilities, he stepped up to the mark, and quickly found himself commissioned as a Sub. Lieutenant in Drake Battalion, Royal Naval Division.
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