{"id":3600,"date":"2018-05-28T11:29:56","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T17:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/?page_id=3600"},"modified":"2022-11-17T14:06:20","modified_gmt":"2022-11-17T21:06:20","slug":"robert-arthur-kelly","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/the-biographies\/robert-arthur-kelly\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Arthur Kelly"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

(Xenia, Ohio, April 19, 1888 \u2013 Xenia, Ohio, June 1, 1966).1<\/a><\/p>\n

Kelly\u2019s paternal grandfather, born and raised in Ireland, brought skills related to cloth manufacturing to the U.S. in 1859, initially settling in New Jersey, where Kelly\u2019s father was born, and then moving to Ohio, where he developed machinery for manufacturing hemp twine.2<\/a>\u00a0Kelly\u2019s mother, Rachel Josephine Kelly, n\u00e9e Corry, came from a well-to-do farming family; her father had come to Xenia from Pennsylvania at a young age.3<\/a><\/p>\n

Kelly initially enrolled in the College of Wooster in Ohio but transferred to Yale\u2019s Sheffield Scientific School, where he joined the Aero Club and sat on the club\u2019s governing board.4<\/a>\u00a0The high spirits and high jinks that later figured in Elliott White Springs\u2019s accounts of Kelly were already in evidence at Yale: in 1910 Kelly was one of four Sheffield men suspended for \u201cborrowing\u201d a classmate\u2019s automobile.5<\/a>\u00a0Evidently reinstated, Kelly graduated in 1911. In about 1914, suffering from tuberculosis, he spent some time in Arizona.6<\/a>\u00a0By 1917 at the latest, when he registered for the draft, he was back in Ohio and employed at R. A. Kelly Co, the family cordage manufacturing firm.7<\/a><\/p>\n

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The front and back of Kelly’s draft registration card.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kelly attended the School of Military Aeronautics at Ohio State University in the summer of 1917, graduating on August 4, 1917, and then proceeding to a Signal Corps Aviation school nearby for primary flight instruction.8<\/a>\u00a0At the beginning of September Kelly was sent to Mineola and assigned to a group of 150 men going to Italy for flight training. Members of the \u201cItalian detachment\u201d boarded the\u00a0Carmania<\/i>\u00a0at New York on September 18, 1918, and set sail initially for Halifax. There they joined a convoy for the Atlantic crossing, which took just under two weeks. On board, Kelly found kindred spirits in Springs and Allen Tracy Bird, although the former, being in charge of the group, made an effort to keep the shenanigans under control: \u201cWe have an ex-cowboy with us named Bird, who has been having a terrible time behaving himself. Bob Kelly was a cowboy out in Arizona for a while when he was trying to shake off the con and every time they get together the storm clouds gather. They are good friends of Springs’s and whenever they get started he joins them and tries to quiet things down.\u201d9<\/a><\/p>\n

Arrived at Liverpool on October 2, 1917, the men were informed that they would not be going to sunny Italy as anticipated, but were put immediately on a train for Oxford where they would attend ground school, again. They had to leave most of their baggage in Liverpool, and \u201cSprings left Kelly in charge of it and he picked Bird and [Earl] Adams and [Stanley Cooper] Kerk to stay with him to help. I’ll bet they don’t show up for a month.\u201d10<\/a>\u00a0 Not a month, but a week later, \u201cKelly and his squad arrived to-day with our baggage. They look like they had a good time. Bird was telling some story about their driving a coach until Kelly fell through the top of it.\u201d11<\/a>\u00a0October 1917 entries in\u00a0War Birds<\/i>\u00a0include a number of passages recounting drinking and partying centered on Bird and Kelly. \u201c Kelly and Bird go out every night and take off their white hat bands [which marked them as cadets] and say that they are mechanics from this squadron outside of town. They throw a big party and then come in and wake Springs up to tell him about it because they say they don’t want to do anything behind his back that they wouldn’t tell him about to his face.\u201d12<\/a><\/p>\n

At the beginning of November places became available for flight training at Stamford, and Springs had to choose twenty men out of the 150, all of whom were eager to get flying. Kelly was among those Springs selected, probably because he, like a number of the others, had had some flight training already. Even without Bird\u2014who left with the rest of the detachment for machine gun school at Grantham on November 3, 1917\u2014Kelly and Springs did their best to get into trouble, coming back from Abingdon very late their last night in Oxford and breaking the tree limb used for after-hours entrance into their college: \u201climb Kelly and all landed right on my belt buckle. Funny? We couldn\u2019t move for half an hour and then we had to build a sort of ladder out of the broken limb to get in.\u201d13<\/a><\/p>\n

Once at Stamford, Kelly and Springs roomed together. Springs wrote home that \u201c[w]e have very nice quarters here. Two of us are living over a little millinery shop on High Street. My roommate is a prince. Three years ago he went out to Arizona to die with consumption. He\u2019s now the healthiest specimen you ever saw. I call him Morituri.\u201d14<\/a> They partied together and, when weather permitted, trained on Curtiss JN-4s. There was presumably some initial dual instruction, but, assuming Kelly\u2019s experience resembled Springs, he put in many hours flying solo. He may, like Springs, have started flying DH.6s early in the new year.15<\/a>\u00a0 Springs\u2019s diary entry for January 5, 1918, indicates that Kelly, along with James Ernest Roth, was posted from Stamford to another training field, apparently, according to a passing reference in\u00a0War Birds<\/i>, Harling Road in Norfolk.16<\/a>\u00a0Springs mentions planning to visit Kelly there in a letter dated January 20, 1918.17<\/a><\/p>\n

By early March 1918 Kelly had advanced sufficiently to be recommended for a commission. Pershing\u2019s cable conveying the recommendation to the War Department is dated March 14, 1918; the confirming cable is dated March 26, 1918.18<\/a>\u00a0 Kelly was still (or again) at Harling Road on April 5, 1918, when he was placed on active duty.18a<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0As far as I can tell, the only training provision at Harling Road was No. 10 Training Depot Station, which prepared pilots for daylight bombing on DH.4s and DH.9s.18b<\/a>\u00a0 I have found no further information on Kelly\u2019s training, but, given that he was later assigned to S.E.5 squadrons, he must have received some training at a station or stations other than Harling Road.<\/p>\n

In a letter probably from early June 1918, Springs remarks that \u201cI had a letter from Kelly from England today and he hopes to be ready to come out in a week or so. The Major is going to try to get him here.\u201d19<\/a>\u00a0Springs was evidently hoping that Billy Bishop, C.O. of No. 85 Squadron R.A.F., could pull strings to get Kelly assigned to 85, where Springs, John McGavock Grider, and Laurence Kingsley Callahan had been since early May. However, this was not to be. On June 16, 1918, Kelly was admitted to the Prince of Wales Hospital in London, apparently suffering from fever.20<\/a>\u00a0By June 23, 1918, he was well enough to have dinner in London with Marvin Kent Curtis.21<\/a><\/p>\n

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Kelly’s (person) casualty card from the R.A.F. Museum, London.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In September Springs was once again (or still) trying to get Kelly into his squadron, which was now the U.S. 148th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero: \u201cAm trying to get Bob Kelly for the eighth [148th<\/sup>?]. He\u2019s still in hospital in London from his crash but ought to be out shortly.\u201d22<\/a>\u00a0I have not been able to find a casualty card related to a crash involving Kelly.<\/p>\n

Kelly\u2019s very sketchy R.A.F. service record suggests he continued to have health problems. A medical exam on October 29, 1918, reports that he was \u201cFit H[ome] S[ervice] with flying duties. Unfit G[eneral] S[ervice] 4 weeks.\u201d23<\/a><\/p>\n

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From Kelly’s R.A.F. service record.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nevertheless, on November 7, 1918, he was sent to France, to No. 2 A.S.D., i.e., the pilots pool south of Boulogne, where he remained for a little over the month, well beyond the armistice.24<\/a> \u00a0Finally, on December 12, 1918, he went to No. 92 Squadron R.A.F., an S.E.5 squadron, but he was almost immediately transferred to the A.E.F.25<\/a>\u00a0 According to one source, he reported to the (American) 1st Air Depot at Colombey-les-Belles on December 16, 1918.25a<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0From there he was apparently assigned, like a number of other second Oxford detachment members, to the U.S. 25th<\/sup> Aero\u2014the only U.S. squadron to be equipped with S.E.5s.26<\/a><\/p>\n

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Entry for Kelly in Munsell’s “Air Service History.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On March 15, 1919, Kelly embarked on the S.S.\u00a0Roma<\/i>\u00a0at Marseilles and sailed for home, arriving at Brooklyn on April 4, 1919.27<\/a>\u00a0He returned to Xenia and was for a time associated with the family cordage business.28<\/a>\u00a0 Active as a reserve officer, he attained the rank of major.29<\/a>\u00a0In the 1930s he was a founding partner of the Kelly-Creswell Company, which still manufactures pavement striping equipment.30<\/a>\u00a0Spings\u2019s continued regard for Kelly is evident in Springs\u2019s dedication to him of a short story, \u201cLong Distance,\u201d which is among the stories in the 1927 collection,\u00a0Nocturne Militaire<\/i>.<\/p>\n

mrsmcq May 25, 2018; updated June 22, 2021, to include photo and to reflect casualty form information<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Notes<\/h3>\n

(For complete bibliographic entries, please consult the list of\u00a0works and web pages cited<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

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1<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0For Kelly\u2019s place and date of birth, see Ancestry.com,\u00a0U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917\u20131918<\/i>, record for Robert Arthur Kelly. For his place and date of death, see \u201cR. A. Kelly is Claimed at Hospital.\u201d\u00a0 The photo is one kept by John Chadbourn Rorison and reproduced on p. 50 of Doyle, \u201cWar Birds Pictorial\u201d (where the caption apparently incorrectly associates him with No. 94 Squadron R.A.F.).\u00a0 My thanks to the League of WW 1 Aviation Historians for permission to use the photo here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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2<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See \u201cRobert A. Kelly,\u201d an obituary for Robert Alexander Kelly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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3<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See documents available at Ancestry.com.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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4<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See The College of Wooster,\u00a0Catalog of the Alumni Faculty and Officers 1870\u20131916<\/i>, p. 100; and\u00a0The Yale Banner and Pot-Pourri 1910\u20131911<\/i>, pp. 366 and 441.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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5<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cXenia Boy in College Prank.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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6<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Springs,\u00a0Letters from a War Bird<\/i>, p. 57; see also the entry for September 29, 1917, in\u00a0War Birds<\/i>\u00a0with the reference to Kelly \u201ctrying to shake off the con,\u201d where \u201ccon\u201d is presumably short for \u201cconsumption.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

7<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See Kelly\u2019s World War I draft registration, cited above.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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8<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0See \u201c151 Cadet Aviators Graduated\u201d and Ancestry.com, Ohio Soldiers in WWI, 1917\u20131918<\/i>, record for Robert A. Kelly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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9<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0War Birds<\/i>, entry for September 29, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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10<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ibid<\/i>., entry for October 3, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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11<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ibid<\/i>., entry for October 8, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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12<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ibid<\/i>., entry for October 22, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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13<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Springs,\u00a0Letters from a War Bird<\/i>, p. 53.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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14<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ibid<\/i>., p. 57.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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15<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See the flight log transcriptions in Chapter 3 of Springs,\u00a0Letters from a War Bird<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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16<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0For Springs\u2019s diary entry, see Springs,\u00a0Letters from a War Bird<\/i>, p. 71;\u00a0War Birds<\/i>, entry for January 31, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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17<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See Springs,\u00a0Letters from a War Bird<\/i>, p. 78, where I believe \u201cHarbury\u201d is a mistranscription for \u201cHarling.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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18<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Cablegrams 731-S and 985-R.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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18a<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 Biddle, \u201cSpecial Orders No. 35.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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18b<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 On Harling Road and No. 10 T.D.S., see \u201cFeltwell & Harling Rd aerodromes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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19<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Springs,\u00a0Letters from a War Bird<\/i>, p. 148.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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20<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See \u201cKelly, R. A.\u201d I read the \u201cNature of Casualty\u201d entry in part as \u201cAdmitted 17.6.18 P.U.O.\u201d and take \u201cP.U.O.\u201d to mean \u201cpyrexia of unknown origin.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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21<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Curtis, letter of June 23, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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22<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Letter of September 12, 1918, p. 229 of Springs,\u00a0Letters from a War Bird<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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23<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See The National Archives (United Kingdom),\u00a0Royal Air Force officers’ service records 1918\u20131919<\/i>, record for R. A. Kelly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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24<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 See \u201cLieut. R. A. Kelly U.S.A.S.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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25<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ibid<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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25a<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 See the entry for Kelly on p. 234 (41) of Munsell, \u201cAir Service History.\u201d\u00a0 The account in\u00a0The Official Roster of Ohio Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the World War, 1917\u201318<\/i>\u00a0differs; see Ancestry.com,\u00a0Ohio Soldiers in WWI, 1917\u20131918<\/i>, record for Robert A. Kelly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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26<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0On Kelly\u2019s assignment to the 25th<\/sup>, see Sloan,\u00a0Wings of Honor<\/i>, pp. 206 and 221; Ancestry.com,\u00a0Ohio Soldiers in WWI, 1917\u20131918<\/i>, record for Robert A. Kelly; and Nettleton,\u00a0Yale in the World War<\/i>, vol. 2, p. 351. Kelly\u2019s name does not appear on rosters for the 25th<\/sup>\u00a0in Sloan,\u00a0Wings of Honor<\/i>, pp. 387\u201388 and 428\u201329, or \u201cHistory of 25th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero Squadron, (Pursuit).\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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27<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0War Department, Office of the Quartermaster General, Army Transport Service,\u00a0Lists of Incoming Passengers, 1917 – 1938<\/i>, Passenger list for Casuals, on S. S.\u00a0Roma<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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28<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ancestry.com,\u00a01920 United States Federal Census<\/i>, record for Robert A Kelly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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29<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cMen and Matters.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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30<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cR. A. Kelly is Claimed at Hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Xenia, Ohio, April 19, 1888 \u2013 Xenia, Ohio, June 1, 1966).1 Kelly\u2019s paternal grandfather, born and raised in Ireland, brought skills related to cloth manufacturing to the U.S. in 1859, initially settling in New Jersey, where Kelly\u2019s father was born, and then moving to Ohio, where he developed machinery for manufacturing hemp twine.2\u00a0Kelly\u2019s mother, Rachel … Continue reading “Robert Arthur Kelly”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6540,"parent":30,"menu_order":66,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3600","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3600"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7662,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3600\/revisions\/7662"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}