There was a time when the postman was a joy to behold and the telegraph delivery boy was the most unwelcome visitor imaginable.
“Please mother, don’t feel too bad about Bert being gone. For, as I stood beside his grave, I thought I’d burst with pride and emotion.”
Rifleman John Kelly, the 19-year-old son of Roy and Martha Kelly of Thornton, wrote home to his parents in October 1944 from the battlefields in France. Twice reported wounded, his letter must have been a wonderful alternate to the dreaded telegram that they surely expected every day that he was away.
“And Mom, I’m proud to say that I fought on the soil that Bert and the rest of our Air Force made it possible for us to liberate. I only wish you could have been here with me. Goodnight, Mom and remember Bert always said keep your chins up. Love and best wishes from your loving son Johnny.”
In July 1943, Mr. and Mrs. Kelly had received an entirely different message from overseas.
“Regret to advise you that your son Albert Edward Kelly is reported missing after air operations overseas July fourth stop letters follow.”
Brief, succinct, impersonal and horrifying. It wasn’t until late November that the Royal Canadian Air Force issued a certificate of presumption of death. Until then, Bert Kelly’s parents must have held onto ever-diminishing shreds of hope.
Bert Kelly was a farm boy. Working for his father was all he knew. Except for a brief period when he thought he wanted to be a cook and took a job at the White Front café in Barrie, Bert was content with a quiet rural life.
Yet many young men like Bert Kelly were inspired by feelings of patriotism and a desire to do something important in a far away place. So, they enlisted and went away. No doubt, they hoped to return.
Bert Kelly filled out all the enlistment forms, underwent a medical, traveled to Barrie to attend to his affairs at the Royal Bank and Canada Life insurance, signed his will, and off he went. Tragically, Bert was lost on a flying expedition over Cologne, Germany.
It wasn’t unusual for brothers to want to fight together. My own grandfather had attempted to enlist during the Great War, as his elder brother, Jimmy, a career merchant sailor, was already headed to the fight. My grandfather was unable to close one eye without the other, making the firing of a gun impossible, and so he was sent home. Jimmy was mowed down on a Somme battlefield, and very likely my grandfather would have met the same fate at his side.
How did Roy and Martha Kelly feel when their last remaining son, John, got called up? Bert had enlisted in 1941 and John enlisted the following year.
I can only imagine that John’s parents were struck by mixed emotions of intense fear and pride. As for John, only a man in a similar situation could know what he was feeling, but he may have been moved to go and finish what Bert had started, to honour his brother’s sacrifice. His letter hints at that.
Coincidentally, John Kelly was wounded for the first time on July 4, 1944, exactly one year to the day after his brother was killed in action. In a fierce battle at Carpiquet, France, during the Normandy Campaign, John was hit in the leg by a bomb and spent two months in an English hospital before being returned to the front. Despite that, and his second wounding two months later, the Kellys got their Johnny back.
August 1945 was a great month for John Kelly. That month, the Thornton community threw a big welcome home party for the returned soldier. It was also the month that John married Miss Eleanor Hill.
Each week, the Barrie Historical Archive provides BarrieToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past. This unique column features photos and stories from years gone by and is sure to appeal to the historian in each of us.
