Private Thomas Ewart Kelly was born in Toronto, Ontario, on December 29, 1889, to Thomas H. and Margaret Kelly, one of five children and the only boy. He graduated with a B.A. from the University of Toronto in the spring of 1914, with the intention to continue his studies and enter the legal profession. Prior to his enlistment he served in the Militia with the 12th York Rangers.

Kelly enlisted at Valcartier, Québec, on September 23, 1914, with the 4th Battalion. As part of the First Contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, he sailed to England in October 1915 aboard the SS Tyrolia. Kelly was serving with the 4th Bn. in Belgium when he was killed in action on April 23, 1915. According to his Circumstances of Death Registers card, he died “while acting as a runner at Langemarck, he was carrying a message from one part of the line to another, when he was struck by a rifle bullet and killed.”  Kelly’s body was never found, and he is commemorated on the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium.

Content notes:
The collection consists of a single letter, written by Kelly in December of 1914, to his older sister, Mrs. Susanna Darlington of Don Lands (Toronto), Ont.

External links:
Pte. Thomas Kelly’s service record (Serv/Reg# 10665) can be viewed/downloaded through Library and Archives Canada.
Kelly’s Circumstances of Death Registers record card (see page #631), Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring Kelly can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.