Lance Corporal William Alexander Kelly
Lance Corporal Kelly (Service No.2189) was born in the Parish of Carnew, near Dromore, County Down. He enlisted with the North Irish Horse on 6 June 1916, soon after his 18th birthday. On 7 December 1916 he was transferred to the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (No.40883) and embarked for France, where he was posted to A Company. On 31 July 1917, during the Battalion's attack on the Westhoek Ridge on the first day of the battle of Passchendaele, Kelly was wounded with a gun shot wound to the neck. The Battalion's casualties that day were 36 officers and other ranks killed, 152 wounded, and 18 missing. Kelly was hospitalised in England. He was later transferred to the Royal Irish Regiment (no.3366) and posted for home service.
Image, from Belfast Evening Telegraph, from 1917, kindly provided by Nigel Henderson (see Fitzroy Presbyterian Church: Wartime Service and Sacrifice).