What happened to Michael Kelly and William Dodd?

 This is a picture of my great grandfather Joseph Kelly and his friends, Michael Kelly (no relation) and Willie Dodd (a cousin).

William Dodd (seated) Michael Kelly standing behind William, Joseph Kelly on the right

Joseph Kelly was born on the 8th of May 1895 in Durham, the ninth child of Michael Kelly and Mary Agnes Dodds. He would have been 19 when war was declared in 1914, and he joined the Durham Light Infantry, 8th Battalion. Presumably this picture was taken not long after he’d joined the army. His cousin, William Dodd, was slightly older and was a reservist so was called up when war broke out. Michael Kelly is the same age as Joseph and worked as a miner just like Joseph and William. 

Looking at the picture, they all look quite young to me, even William who would have been in his late twenties. I wouldn’t describe any of them as scrawny but they don’t look like big men. 

Joseph, or Joe, never really talked about his experiences in the war. He died suddenly in 1965 of a heart attack behind the wheel of his car, and because of the nature of his death there was an inquest. The autopsy found evidence of shrapnel injuries in his left thigh and his head. It wasn’t really known how he came about those injuries. However, since then a newspaper clipping was found that describes how he was injured. 

Transcript:

Private Kelly’s graphic story.

Writing from Nottingham General Hospital on May 7th. Private J Kelly, of the 8th D.L.I. says:- “I am very much put about that nothing is being heard of either Willie or M. Kelly. I wonder what can have happened to them? The last I saw of ‘Mick’ was when I got hit. The Germans were firing shrapnel as hard as they could, and I said to him, ‘Come in here beside me,’ as I was at his side from the beginning. I popped into a little traverse trench, and had no sooner finished speaking to him when a shell burst over my head, pieces of it striking me just between the eyes and on the left thigh. I can tell you it hurt at the same time. The gas blinded me, and I don’t know what I would have done had not a Canadian taken me into a dug-out and bandaged me. I stayed there until the order came for us to retire, and then the Canadian took me by the arm and helped me back to the next trenches. I thought my time had come as machine guns and rifles blazed away at us all the time, and you could hear the bullets whistling around you. He gave me into the care of two sentries, who took me back to an old farmhouse which was being used as a dressing station. At every five yards we had to throw ourselves flat on the ground on account of the shrapnel.”

Private Kelly goes on to give a graphic account of how he left the dressing station with three others on account of the German advance. He had to make a stick into crutches, and fainted just before he set away through hunger. He did not know how they managed to get away without the Germans seeing them. He nearly gave up hope, and believed he would have done had it not been for his companion, who kept him going.

This clipping is from the Durham County Advertiser May 14th 1915, in a section called Letters from the Front. It seems that people sent in letters of bits of information they’ve had from their loved ones, on people who are missing, alive, dead. There are extracts from letters like this one, pleas for information or support if they’re a prisoner of war. I’d have to assume that Joe was writing home to either his mother (who died in 1918) or one of his older siblings. They would only have sent this letter in because he wanted to know what happened to his friends. 

So what did happen to them?

I wanted to figure out what happened to my great-grandfather and his friends. The 8th Battalion DLI were deployed in the Second Battle of Ypres in April/May 1915. I’m not going to pretend any detailed knowledge of the battles of WW1 - this Wikipedia article was very helpful to me in giving an overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Ypres This battle saw the first mass use of poison gas, and my great-grandfather was affected by this as you can see from the letter above. It also seems to me that this battle was  catastrophic, with heavy losses and casualties on both sides. On the Allies, you had the British, Canadians and French with apparently over 59,000 losses from the British forces. This is a huge number of people to be killed and doesn’t include the tens of thousand from the Canadian, French and German forces. There were even more casualties from the shelling and the gas. 

This battle inspired the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ which became an iconic war poem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Flanders_Fields

Unfortunately, Joseph Kelly’s war records have not survived so all we know about what happened to him is pretty much in that letter. The attestation document or parts of them - of Michael Kelly (no relation) and William Dodd have survived though. They were both taken prisoner by the Germans during this battle. They were both interned at Munster II, just one of the four camps at Munster. They remained there until they were liberated after the Armistice. 

There’s not a lot of information about Michael Kelly’s (no relation) war service. He signed up for the 8th Battalion Durham Light Infantry on the 16th September 1914 and was living at 10 Maynard’s Row, Gilesgate Durham. He was captured wounded on the 26th April and was interned at Munster II, presumably alongside his comrades from the 8th Battalion. He was repatriated 24th March 1919, if I’m reading the record right. His attestation documents are part of the “Burnt Documents” archive - I think you can guess what happened to them. I’m assuming that Joseph Kelly’s documents were totally destroyed by this same action. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14567

In the documents there’s a new address after the war for Michael Kelly: 2 Magdelene Street, Durham. He appears in the 1921 census living at 2 Magdelene Street with his parents, and is employed at Sherburn House Colliery as “Miner coal filler” although out of work. He’s still living there in 1939, though by this time married and working as an Insurance Agent. 

I was struck by the coincidences here. It turns out Mick Kelly’s birthday is 8th May 1895, which is the same as Joe Kelly’s birthday. Joe was working as an assurance agent in 1939 having previously been employed as a miner. Were they at school together? I like to think that they became friends by virtue of having the same birthday and surname because when you’re a kid that’s all it takes.

The documents relating to William Dodd are much more extensive. He enlisted in the Territorial Force in 1908. This site has a nice overview of what the Territorial Force were and how they operated: http://liverpoolscottish.org.uk/index.php?page=the-territorial-force-1908-14.

He was born 3rd January 1882, I think as an illegitimate child of Joseph Kelly’s aunt Sarah Ann Dodd (or Dodds). I think he must have been raised by other family members as he appears in the censuses of 1891, 1901, 1911 living with uncles/aunts. He was a miner and worked at the Sherburn House Colliery at the time of the outbreak of the first World War.

He joined the 8th Battalion Durham Light Infantry on the outbreak of war, I think as a Corporal as he had attained that rank in the Territorial Force. His Casualty Card states that he embarked Folkstone 20/4/1915 and disembarked Boulogne. On 2/5/15 he was marked as Missing in the field. On 15/5/15 it states that he is a prisoner of war in Munster II, captured at Ypres. He was then in Gutersloh (a different camp) and it was noted he was on the official German POW list. 

In his medical history, it notes that he was admitted to military hospital to be treated for gonorrhea 12/12/18. He was transferred to different hospitals and spent about a month recovering from his infection. This is an intriguing detail, how did he get a sexually transmitted infection? I mean, yes, I know how it happens, the clue is in the name. What I mean is, was it while he was in the camp? Was it after? Was there some celebrating after the Armistice? If you would like to Google pre-antibiotic treatments for gonorrhea, you’d be very welcome to do so if you’d like to get an idea of why he was in hospital for so long.

He apparently continued to be part of the Territorial Force and there is his medical inspection which has the following description from when he was 38: height 5 feet 3 inches, chest when expanded 36.5 inches, hair light brown, complexion fresh, eyes hazel. He is tattooed(!). He was declared to be in good medical condition. 

He continued to work as a miner and is in the 1921 census living at 23 Young Street, Durham, with his wife and son. They had married on 22nd January 1910 and their son, Norman was born 29th October 1910. His son is working as an elementary school teacher and enlisted in the Royal Artillery for the Second World War. He dies on the 4th June 1943. 

The two links below gave a nice overview for me of what life was like in a POW camp. Many thousands of soldiers were interned and remained int he camps for years. I think life was pretty tough, not a lot to eat and often prisoners were made to work hard - although those who were miners and the like would have been used to hard manual work. But there was room for fun as well, apparently. There are reports of theatre groups, regular performances, a library, football matches and so on. Munster II even had several newspapers. 

https://fisherdigitus.library.utoronto.ca/exhibits/show/wwi/prisoners-of-war

https://www.durhamatwar.org.uk/story/13388/

Brief history of the 8th Durham Light Infantry: https://www.durhamatwar.org.uk/story/12565/

From the Wartime Memories website, there is a copy of a letter in the archive WO95/2816 that gives a bit more detail as to what happened to the 8th Durham Light Infantry and to my great-grandfather and his friends.

18th of May 1915, Letter

Headquarters, 28th Division 18th May 1915. Dear General Lindsay

I wish to tell you how much I appreciate the good work done by the units of your Division which were associated with the 28th Division between the 22nd April and 4th May. The battalions which did especially good service were the 8th Battalion Durham Light Infantry, the 4th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment, and the 4th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment. The 8th Battalion Durham Light Infantry were sent up on 25th April to occupy the trenches on the Gravenstafel Ridge. They were heavily shelled and attacked by gas, but held on to their position throughout the day, beating off all attacks made by the German infantry. On the 26th they were again heavily attacked by infantry supported by a strong force of artillery, but held on until ordered to fall back to a position further in the rear. In the face of a very superior force they carried out this movement steadily and slowly inflicting severe loss on the enemy, though unfortunately at great cost to themselves.

The 4th Yorks and 4th East Yorks were associated with the 11th Infantry Brigade on the north front during the severe fighting from the 29th April to the 3rd May. The Brigadier spoke highly of the manner in which they carried out their duties, as did also the Commanding Officers of all the battalions in the 11th Infantry Brigade.

I had hoped to be able to see the units and thank them personally for their services, but urgent duties prevented my leaving my headquarters. I should be very glad if you would allow the Brigadiers to inform the units mentioned, and especially the 8th Durham Light Infantry, how much I appreciated the good work they did and the gallantry displayed by all ranks. 

50th Division HQ War Diary WO95/2816

https://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/battalion.php?pid=409