The sad story of Major Alan Reid-Kellett (SWB)

[spof]

I just came across this article from 1940 talking about how he was so destitute he had to pawn his MC, DSO and French CdG and was arrested for sleeping in a doorway.

 

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article198740557

[Keith Iles]

Poor blighter quite a story I wonder if his future improved, seems like he was a case of put up or shut up and penalised for speaking his mind.

[Steven Broomfield]

Thanks, Spof: a sad story. Wonder how it ended (and where his medals are now).

[corisande]

As with all these stories , there is usually more to it ! He left a string of newspaper reports.

 

Starting with "thrashing" his wife

In an extraordinary sign of the times the judge said

And when inevitably the divorce later came, the judge said "..she asked for it. She was an actress.."

He remarried in 1921!

 

He then spends time in Peru and Brazil and Australia .EG

Before returning to UK

[corisande]

Gets into trouble with his temper in 1937

 

Runs the ex-service men's defence league (I have no idea if this was kosher)

[corisande]

And finally changes his name, making him just about impossible to follow any more. NZ papers show he was in NZ from about 1943 to 1946, when one loses track of him

 

[corisande]

The case of Major Reid-Kellett brought to mind the case of Brigadier EA Wood, whom I have researched

 

Wood had DSO and 3 (yes 3 bars).  He ran the ADRIC in 1921, went bankrupt. He spent most of his remaining years in a fruitless war of attrition with the British government, trying to obtain an officer’s pension to which he had no claim.  During the process he managed to alienate everyone who tried to help him, including King George V.  Monies given to him in good faith had a habit of disappearing or of being used for purposes for which they were not intended. Edward Allan Wood died from cirrhosis of the liver aged 65

 

Times could be difficult, but one tends to have to judge each case on its merits.

[EastSurrey]

When I was doing some research on 6/South Wales Borderers, with whom my wife's great uncle was killed in 4/1918, I came across R-K's large file-WO339/5013 at T.N.A. He was born in N.Z. in 1886 and acquired engineering qualifications. He fell out with his C.O. in the S. Staffs with whom he 'argued to the point of insubordination'. He was transferred to 6/S.W.B., which although a pioneer battalion, saw a lot of action with 25th Division against the German offensives of 1918. He was judged neuresthenic in a 1919 medical report.

R-K sought employment with the War Office in the 1930s. He caused considerable embarrassment by selling photos in the street of himself selling matches, wearing his medals. He insisted he had no other way of making money. There is correspondence with the Duke of Connaught, amongst others about this.

Michael

[Guest]

MAJOR ALAN REID-KELLETT was a brutal man who beat his wife, Ms Madeliene Seymour, in England. Well documented in the newspapers at the time. I dont feel sorry for him.