Lieutenant William Beverly FOORD-KELCEY MC
C (Howitzer) Battery 104th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery

Date of birth: 24th July 1880
Date of death: 24th September 1918

Killed in action aged 38
Buried at Tincourt New British Cemetery Plot X Row D Grave 5
He was born at Smeeth, Kent on the 24th of July 1880 the second son of George Foord-Kelcey, solicitor, and Mary Constance (nee Beverley) of 25 Cecil Square, Margate. He was christened at St John the Baptist’s Church, Margate on the 29th of August 1880.

He was educated at the Junior King’s School and at the King’s School Canterbury from September 1892 to July 1896; after school he went into the law and practiced as a solicitor in England from 1903. He served in the Inns of Court Officers Training Corps from the 15th of May 1908 to the 14th of May 1909.

He emigrated to Viking, Alberta in Canada where he bought a piece of prairie land and built a house on it. He qualified as a barrister in 1908, establishing a law practice and a real estate business. He was married at Winnipeg on the 24th of June 1912 to Irene Marion Ethel (nee Payne) an artist, who he had met while he was living on a house boat at Bourne End. They had two children, both born in Canada, Alick born on the 6th of April 1913 who went on to become an Air Vice Marshall and Reginald Drury born on the 19th of September 1914; both were OKS. She later lived at Kimble Rectory, in Buckinghamshire and at 39 King's Road, Horsham in Sussex.

He enlisted in Montreal on the 9th of August 1915 as Private 475905 in No. 3 University Company, Canadian Infantry. At a medical examination, which was held at Edmonton on the 2nd of August, it was recorded that he was five feet nine and a half inches tall, that he weighed 160lbs and that he had blue eyes, brown hair and a fair complexion.

He landed in England on the 14th of September 1915 and was transferred to Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry on the 30th of November 1915 and embarked for France the same day. He joined his battalion in the field on the 1st of December and transferred to the 11th (Reserve) Battalion Canadian Infantry on the 28th of January 1916. He was discharged from the battalion the following day when and was posted to the Canadian training Division at Shorncliffe in Kent. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3/2nd London Brigade, Royal Field Artillery on the 30th of January 1916 and was promoted to Lieutenant on the 30th of July 1917. His wife followed him to England, living at “Tamarack”, Mayford, Woking in Surrey.

He was awarded the Military Cross the citation for which appeared in the London Gazette of the 14th of August 1917:-

“For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when acting as forward observation officer to his battery, in establishing and maintaining communication, although the telephone line was cut many times by shell-fire.”

He is commemorated on the war memorial at Sydenham, on the memorial at Margate and on the memorial at Iver Heath in Buckinghamshire.

His son applied for a Kitchener Scholarship in 1932.

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