Private Ernest J Kelsey was a patient at Beechland House Newick in 1917. His
entry in Nurse Oliver’s album reads:
The happiest hours of my life,
Were spent in the arms of another man’s wife,
My Mother.
Pte E J Kelsey
22 Royal Fusiliers
(Coventry)
9.8.17
He shares this page in her album with Sergeant H Hunter and 11066 Band Boy John William Pate, Dragoon Guards.
He is possibly the same Private Kelsey who is mentioned in The East Sussex News of Friday June 29th 1917. The paper reports:
INTERESTING STOOLBALL MATCH
The contestants were Major Grantham’s team of officers of The Royal Flying Corps from Brook House (Chailey) Convalescent Hospital and Miss Cotesworth’s team of NCOs and men from Beechlands (Newick) Convalescent Hospital, and the former gained an easy victory by 50
runs.
The same match had also been reported on five days earlier in The Sussex Express which said that the event had taken
place:
… at Balneath Manor, the residence of Major W W Grantham, between officers
of the Royal Flying Corps from Brook House, the new convalescent Hospital, and a team from Beechlands Convalescent Hospital. Those from Brook House were easy winners. Needless
to say, Mrs Grantham entertained the company present to tea.
Little is known of Private Kelsey. His medal card gives the number 10298
for The Royal Fusiliers and also SE/31883 for the Army Veterinary Corps. No date
of arrival is noted for the theatre of war he served in which suggests that he first went abroad on or after 1st January 1916. It would appear that after recuperating from the wound or sickness which caused him
to spend time at Beechland House, he transferred to the AVC.
Ernest Kelsey survived the war and was entitled to receive the British War and Victory Medals. His entry on the medal roll for the RAVC was dated at Woolwich on 7th May 1920.
Sources and Acknowledgements
· The National Archives: medal information card
· The National Archives: Medal Roll: BW &
V: Roll: RAVC/101 B9 P 475: WO 329/2105
