F.S. Kelly on the BBC

F. S. Kelly in 1903. Picture: Wikipedia.

Tim Koch writes:

Regular readers will know that HTBS has written many times about one of its heroes, Fredrick Septimus Kelly, a rower and sculler who won eight Henley medals between 1897 and 1906 and an Olympic Gold in 1908 and who was also a gifted musical composer and a gallant and decorated soldier, killed in action in 1916. In 2009, we posted a two-part biography (which is here and here) and our most recent post concerning the great man was last week when we linked to a YouTube video containing Kelly’s Elegy for String Orchestra, written at Gallipoli in memory of his friend and fellow soldier, the poet Rupert Brooke.

In the single scull, Kelly won the Wingfields in 1903 and Henley's Diamonds in 1902, 1903 and 1905. His record time for the latter, 8 minutes and 10 seconds, lasted for 30 years.

There is no shortage of accounts of a man who touched people’s lives in a variety of ways. For example, the Australian Dictionary of Biography gives a nice overview of his life while the auction sale details of his war medals naturally gives a fuller description of his military career. In 2004, the National Library of Australia published Race Against Time: The Diaries of F.S. Kelly, edited by T. Radic, and sections appear online on Google books.

Kelly’s last and perhaps greatest race was the 1908 Olympic Final in which his Leander crew beat the Belgians. Here he is standing on the far left of the crew known as ‘The Old Crocks’.

The most recent tribute to Kelly has been by BBC Radio. On 10 August they broadcast an hour long programme fronted by Steve Williams who won Gold in the GB coxless four in both the Athens and Beijing Olympics. It was in a series entitled “Heroes at War” (though “Sporting Heroes at War” would have been more descriptive). Those in the UK who missed it can hear it through the ‘on demand’ site, BBC iPlayer which will have it available for a week, until 11am on Sunday, 17 August. While iPlayer TV programmes can only be viewed by those with British Internet Service Providers, radio (for some reason) can be accessed (also only until the 17th) from anywhere in the world through www.bbc.co.uk/radio (though only via a desktop computer, not a smart phone). Unfortunately, the end of the online version seems to have been clipped.

Steve Williams, later accompanied by BBC Northampton sports editor, Graham McKechnie, records his thoughts ‘on location’ in Henley, Marlow, Gallipoli and the former battlefields of northern France, frequently quoting from Kelly’s diary and with the man’s music forming the underscore. The result is an atmospheric and moving insight into a very complex personality. I particularly like the story that Williams tells of Kelly conducting his battalion’s band as they perform Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture at the Front, presumably within the sound of real artillery. Famously, the ‘1812’ is best known for its finale fanfare of chimes, brass and ‘cannon’. It is, as Williams observes, a very ‘cinematic’ image, and I would suggest that were it a product of a piece of fiction, it could be considered too contrived.

The Martinsart British Cemetery near Albert in Picardie where Kelly is buried. Picture: Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Put aside an hour and enjoy this tribute to a great athlete, artist and soldier.

In Memory of Oarsmen who Died in the Great War

Martinsart's British Cemetery, where F. S. Kelly is buried.

This year media are writing celebratory pieces on the First World War that began 100 years ago, on 28 July 1914 to be more exact. The River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames has just started a very promising blog, Home Front Henley, about the War. Read it here.

HTBS has several times written about oarsmen who fell in the Great War. To mention a few of the more famous ones: Frederick Septimus Kelly, Julian Grenfell, Eric Fairbairn, Guiseppe Sinigaglia and Bernhard von Gaza. We have also posted articles on War Monuments at rowing clubs and other places and war recruitment posters.

In his book The Boat Race: The Story of the First Hundred Races between Oxford and Cambridge (1954) author Gordon Ross lists 42 names of British Blues who paid the ultimate price during the 1914-1918 War - twenty-one Dark Blues and twenty-one Light Blues.

On 1 August Martin Cross published a wonderful piece on FISA’s World Rowing website about the First World War and oarsmen who fought on the battlefields around the world. Read his piece here and watch his video (below) on how he, in May, sculled the River Somme in France to commemorate the brave oarsmen who died:



In the June/July issue of British Rowing’s magazine Rowing & Regatta, Cross also had a well-written piece about his Somme row.

Though the following video has been posted on many places around the web during the last couple of weeks, it is worth watching and listen to over and over again. This is oarsman and composer F. S. Kelly’s Elegy for String Orchestra, written at Gallipoli in memory of Rupert Brooke, the poet and fellow soldier, who had died on board a French hospital ship just off the Greek island of Skyros, where Kelly and his comrades buried Brooke.

Another F. S. Kelly ‘Henley Prize’ went under the Hammer

F. S. Kelly

Greg Denieffe writes:

A new Sporting Memorabilia sale by Graham Budd Auctions took place in Sotheby’s, 34-35 New Bond Street, London, on 5 and 6 November. The full catalogue is online and as in recent sales, there were a few lots (240-245) of interest to collectors of rowing memorabilia. Undoubtedly, the star ‘rowing’ item was a Ladies’ Plate Medal won by F. S. Kelly in 1899.

Lot 240

A Henley Regatta prize medal for the Ladies Challenge Cup in 1899 won by Frederick Septimus Kelly, the Eton College Stroke, the rim named to F.S. KELLY. F.S. Kelly later rowed for Oxford and Leander and won a gold medal at the 1908 Olympic Games as a member of the coxed eight. By profession he was a musician and composer. Having survived Gallipoli, Kelly was killed in action in the last days of the Battle of the Somme. Estimate: £300 - £500

Sold for £240 (plus commission, 17,5 %)

Early in 2012, HTBS reported that Kelly’s Pineapple Cup sold at Bonhams for £3,800. This was his prize for winning the 1905 Diamond Challenge Sculls, his third victory in four years. His first win in the Diamonds was for Balliol College, Oxford, when he won in 1902 beating Raymond Etherington-Smith in the final. Balliol College has the sculls in their historic collections centre in St Cross Church. The following year, sculling for Leander Club, he retained his title beating Julius Beresford, and in 1905 he defeated Harry Blackstaffe. Not to be outdone, the River and Rowing Museumin Henley has a 1905 scull in their collection.

Kelly, a New South Welshman by birth – his father was Irish – also won The Grand Challenge Cup at Henley three times in succession (1903-1906), The Stewards’ Challenge Cup in 1906 and a gold medal for Great Britain at the 1908 Olympics in the eights. He is remembered on the Bisham War Memorial.

Two other lots caught my eye:

Lot 244

Rowing programmes, Durham Regatta 22.6.1938; Maidenhead Amateur Regatta 3.8.1929; Henley Royal Regatta 2.7.38 & 5.7.52; Oxford University Summer Eights 26.5.1936, 22.5.1937 & 24.5.46; Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race 30.3.1946; Oxford University Torpids’ Race Card 21.2.1939; the lot also including a 12-page booklet Henley 1839, red cloth boards; and an Ouse Amateur Sailing Club Regatta at Denver (11). Estimate: £130 - £160

Sold for £110 +

A very diverse collection that would probably do well on eBay split into individual lots. The Henley booklet is rather grand considering it only consists of 12 pages.

Lot 245

A portrait of the British rower Tony Butcher by an unknown hand, oil on canvas, 68.5 by 53cm., 27 by 21in., framed. Estimate: £200 - £300

Sold for £150+

I like the composition of this portrait. The decorated oars are clearly important mementos of a rowing career that saw victory in the 1947 University Boat Race (Cambridge) and The Grand Challenge Cup in 1948 (Thames Rowing Club) and participation in the 1948 Olympic Games (Great Britain 4-).

My first thought on seeing this picture was that Cyril Bird would have enjoyed it. He used the pen name ‘Fougasse’ and in 1948 had a cartoon published in Punch with the caption "Yes, I did row a little at one time – why, how did you discover that?"  Perhaps Oscar Wilde was right, when he opined in his 1889 essay The Decay of Lying that, “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life”.

The other rowing related lots sold for:
241 sold for £160+
242 sold for £240+
243 sold for £100+

All but Lot 245 sold to room bidders.

Ethel's Gold Medal goes for £17,500!

On 3 September, at Christie’s in London, an Olympic gold medal which was won by Raymond D. Etherington-Smith, the captain of the Leander eight which became Olympic champions in 1908, was sold for an astonishing £17,500 ($27,738). This solid gold medal, 25g, 15 carat gold, auctioned off by his family, was estimated to sell for £5,000 – £7,000 ($7,600 – $11,000).

Raymond Etherington-Smith (1877-1913), called ‘Ethel’ by his friends, studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he proved to be an incredible oarsman. He won the Colquohoun Sculls, the Lowe Double Sculls, the University Pairs and Fours, and rowed twice in the Head of the River. In 1898, Ethel rowed in his first Boat Race, and the following year he became President of the C.U.B.C., which was the same year he and his crew managed to break the Dark Blues’ nine-year winning streak. The 1900 Boat Race was also won by the Light Blues with Ethel in fifth-seat. He was Captain of Leander in 1903, 1905, 1906 and 1908, winning the Grand Challenge Cup in 1901, 1903 and 1905, and was the runner-up for the Diamond Challenge Sculls in 1902, racing against the mighty F.S. Kelly.

Ethel was a fine specimen of an oarsman, and Leslie Wars, ‘SPY’, wrote about him: ‘The finest and handsomest young athlete I ever drew as an under-graduate’.

In an article published by the Daily Mail about the auction at Christie’s, Ethel is likened to Sir Steven Redgrave. Read the article here. Incorrectly, the paper writes that Leander’s opponents in the Olympic final race in the eights, the splendid crew from Royal Club Nautique de Gand of Belgium ‘sunk and capsized’ during the race, but that is not true. Following is an account of the race in Henley Races (1919) by Sir Theodore Cook:

‘This proved a magnificent race. The Belgians, who had twice won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley, and at this Regatta had defeated Cambridge University, were thought likely winners by many people. […] Along Temple Island both were rowing 38 a minute, Leander forging slowly ahead and having half a length to the good at the first signal-box. They gained another quarter length  by the time the second box was reached, in spite of a fine spurt on the part of the Belgians. […] At the Henley mile post Leander were rowing 35 a minute, and were a length and a quarter in front. Both crews rowed in to the finish very hard, Leander at 36 and the Belgians at 38 a minute, the former winning by a good two lengths’ distance in the very fast time of 7min. 52sec.’

The Leander eight had been Great Britain’s ‘second’ boat, and many of the oarsmen had their active rowing career behind them. Due to their age they were called the ‘Old Crocks’. So at age 31, Ethel jokingly told his crew mate Guy Nickalls who was 42 years old: ‘I suppose they have asked me because I am about half-way down the line between yourself and Bucknall in age’ [Henry Bucknall, the stroke, was 23 years old].

Sadly, Ethel, who became a doctor, died five years later, a week after he had turned 36, contracting peritonitis during an operation.

Rowers List 2: Göran Buckhorn

Hunting Howell began to row at Trinity Hall in 1895 and took the same year the Grand, got his Blue in 1897, and won both the Diamonds and Wingfields in 1898 and 1899. Courtesy NRF ©

Time for more lists, now the two Top Ten Scullers, up until 1919 and the Top Ten Scullers, from 1920 to present time picked by yours truly. They were not easy to put together, so I had to cheat: the scullers are in alphabetic order, not necessarily ranked within the lists.

Alexander Alcée Casamajor

List IV - Top Ten British Scullers (up until 1919):

1.    E. Barry (p.)
2.    H. Blackstaffe
3.    A. A. Casamajor
4.    R. Chambers (p.)
5.    B. H. Howell
6.    F. S. Kelly
7.    W. Kinnear
8.    J. Lowndes
9.    G. Nickalls
10.  F. L. Playford

Runners-up: R. Guinness, H. Kelley (p.), and V. Nickalls

Tony Fox

List V - Top Ten British Scullers (from 1920 to present time):

1.    C. Baillieu
2.    J. Beresford Jnr.
3.    R. Burnell
4.    B. Bushnell
5.    A. Campbell
6.    T. Fox
7.    P. Haining

8.    E. Phelps (p.)
9.    S. Redgrave
10.  L. Southwood

Runners-up: T. Crooks, M. Hart, and M. Hunter

F. S. Kelly

Comments: Two foreigners have sneaked on to List IV, the American Benjamin Hunting Howell (1875-1953*) and the Australian Frederick Septimus Kelly (1881-1916). Neither of these two gentlemen ever rowed in their home countries, Howell began to row at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and Kelly at Eton, and later took up sculling at Balliol College, Oxford. After their studies had ended, Howell continued to row as a member of Thames RC and Kelly for Leander Club.

(p.) is indicating a ‘professional sculler’.

* In all information on the web (also Wikipedia), and in rowing books where he is mentioned, B. H. Howell's death date is always missing. Well, here it is: Benjamin Hunting Howell was born on 3 September 1875, died on 26 February 1953. Remember that you saw this information first on HTBS!

Listomania

Would 'Muttle' make The List?

What do you think of when you hear ‘rowing list’? Maybe you are thinking of Megan Kalmoe’s ‘Hot List’, or one of the lists of rowers that sometimes pop up on FISA’s website? I had not really considered to post a list of rowers on HTBS, as I have been happy to occasionally post entries on some of my ‘rowing heroes’. But a week ago, I received an e-mail from my HTBS colleague Tim Koch in London. Tim had got an e-mail from David Brooks, a Brit living in the USA. David, who calls himself an ‘amateur sports historian’, was interested in getting information about some British oarsmen to be able to put together what he calls ‘an all-time British rowing squad.’

Both Tim and I thought that it sounded like a good idea for a discussion on HTBS. Tim immediately threw in five names: Steve Redgrave, Matthew Pinsent, Jack Beresford Jnr., Guy Nickalls, and the professional sculler Ernest Barry. Tim also mentions one of his (and mine) rowing heroes, Wally Kinnear, as someone who might be on a ‘scullers’ list’ with Barry.

I also contacted some rowing historians to see whom they might like to have on their ‘Top Ten British Rowers List’. There I run into problems. You see, they do not ‘do’ lists. However, they were happy to drop some names. Peter Mallory, author of the four-volume, 2,500-page, The Sport of Rowing (2011), mentions: Stanley Muttlebury, Beresford Snr., and Ran Laurie. ‘Beresford Jr. could row lightweight for sure. And don’t forget Mark Hunter [who is featured in the current issue of Rowing & Regatta, May 2012]. I’m not too impressed with British professionals beyond Ernie and perhaps Bert Barry,’ Peter writes. He also mentions ‘the Old Crocks’, the Leander eight that took gold at the Olympic regatta in 1908.

Well-known rowing historian Tom Weil writes:

‘Two scullers of y’oar who merit very serious consideration are A.A. Casamajor and F.S. Kelly, each a giant of his era. By his death at 28 (3 days before the 1861 Wingfields), Casamajor had won the Diamonds in 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858 and 1861, and the Wingfields in 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858, 1859, and 1860 (as well as the Goblets in 1855, 1856, 1858, and 1860, the Stewards in 1856, the Wyfolds in 1856, and the Grand in 1857 and 1859).  This records includes multiple Henley victories in each of the 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858 regattas.

‘Kelly (who was born in Australia, but spent his entire rowing career in England, starting with stroking Eton to the Ladies’ in 1899) won the Diamonds in 1902, 1903 (over Beresford Sr) and 1905, and the Wingfields in 1903 (as well as the Stewards in 1906, the Grand in 1903, 1904, and 1905, and gold in the UK eight in the 1908 Olympics [‘the Old Crocks’]). Kelly’s Diamonds time stood for 30+ years before beaten by Joe Burk. Kelly also died young, a casualty of WWI.’

Albert de Laud Long

Another HTBS colleague, Greg Denieffe, writes, ‘I’m no great fan of ‘listomania’ but that’s because I’m no good at them!’ However, Greg drops a name:

‘One person that I would put forward,’ Greg writes, ‘to be on an overall top 10 sweep list would be Albert de Laud Long. A Wingfield Sculls winner in 1869 and again in 1870 he won a staggering 18 trophies at Henley between 1868 and 1877. Five times a Grand winner, eight Stewards’ wins, four in the Goblets and a win in the Coxless fours of 1872. He was also in the London R.C. crew in the “1872 Anglo-American Boat-Race,” in which London R.C. beat Atalanta B.C. of New York from Mortlake to Putney.’

Tomorrow, HTBS will present David Brooks’s ‘all-time British rowing squad’, and some ‘rules’ for those of you who would like to contribute with your own ‘Top Ten British Rowers List’, or should I say ‘lists’ as there is going to be more than one.

Kelly's Pineapple Cup Sold At Bonhams For £3,800

Yesterday, HTBS received interesting information from two rowing historians, Tom Weil of Connecticut and Greg Denieffe of England, who both had been covering an auction by Bonhams in London. Up for auction was a rare rowing prize, the 1905 Pineapple Trophy Goblet, The Diamond Sculls, Henley Royal Regatta awarded to Frederick Septimus Kelly of Leander Club, who HTBS has written about earlier. According to Bonhams, the trophy was made by Walter, Michael & John Barnard & Sons, Hallmarked London 1905. 24oz. 8.75x4.25ins (22x11cm). The auction house also wrote about its history:

“First awarded in 1844, the Diamond Sculls ‘For Amateurs, open to All England’ was seen as the pinnacle of individual rowing. In 1850, the Diamond scarf pin prize was replaced by the Diamond Challenge Sculls, the winner being awarded a silver gilt pineapple goblet to retain. This tradition was continued at every regatta until 1973. This tradition has subsequently be reinstated, with all winners now receiving a cup to record their victory.”



Frederick Kelly (1881-1916) was born in Sydney, Australia, where he attended Sydney Grammar. Kelly later studied at Eton, where he rowed in the crew who took the 1899 Ladies’ Challenge Plate at Henley. He began to scull at Balliol College, Oxford, and won the Diamond Sculls 1902, 1903, and 1905 – the latter year beating Vesta RC’s Harry Blackstaffe in a new record time that stood for more than 30 years (the American Joe Burk beat the record in 1938). Kelly also became the champion of the Thames in 1903 after winning the Wingfield Sculls.

As a member of Leander Club, Kelly also won the Grand in 1903, 1904, and 1905; and the Stewards Challenge Cup in 1906. He then resigned from rowing to concentrate on his music studies, but was called back to compete in Leander’s famous crew, the ‘Old Crocks’, who became Olympic champions in the eight at the 1908 Olympic regatta in Henley. At the outbreak of the war, Kelly joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and was killed in the great Battle of the Somme in 1916.

Kelly’s 1905 Pineapple Trophy Goblet was sold at Bonhams for £3,800 (exclusive of premium and VAT).

Special thanks to Tom Weil and Greg Denieffe for all the information! Photographs of the Pineapple Cup from Bonhams cataloque.

The Forever Sonata

The Forever Sonata

(To Frederick Kelly)

In a morning of tranquil splendor
He rowed the bay,
The air hung fragrant with peace.
He did not notice in the cut of the water
The agitation of shadows foretelling doom.

In the word “water” is the word “war.”
But who would think that?
Certainly no one
Out for a row in a morning of splendor.
And the Somme? Who would even know

What the Somme was, though the Somme was
Already calling somberly his name
In the somber roll call of the dead.
And the Somme drummed on ahead of him
As he rowed through splendor morning.

Never to know morning would become mourning,
As the Somme drummed somberly his name.
And where peace once hung fragrant in the splendor
Morning, now hung acid
Stink of the war, the acid

Odor of the dead who rowed
No more, no more.
Now across the bay a century later,
Splendor rises in the morning air,
Air through which I can sense

The dead rowing where the fragrance
Of peace laurels his brow,
Laurels with the music of his sonata,
His sonata that will play
Forever in the splendor.

Philip Kuepper
(1/21/2012)

See also "F.S. Kelly's Lost Sonata Found After 80 Years"

F.S. Kelly's Lost Sonata Found After 80 Years

Keeping HTBS going with articles almost daily demands a lot of reading, researching, and writing. Of course, this means that one feels close to some of the rowers and scullers; they become favorites, or even ‘rowing heroes’. The other day the good fellow Tim Koch sent an e-mail with a link to an article from last year’s spring about one of these ‘heroes’, Frederick Septimus Kelly (1881-1916), who was born in Sydney. Kelly was an eminent oarsman, but also a pianist and composer.

At the outbreak of the First World War, he signed up in the British 63rd Royal Naval Division and belonged to the Hood Battalion. According to the article in ABC News in Australia in May, 2011, during the Gallipoli campaign, he composed a violin sonata for a young female violinist, Jelly D’Aranyi, whom Kelly had met and played with in London. He was killed at the end of the Battle of the Somme, on 13 November, 1916. D’Aranyi played the sonata at his memorial service.

The sonata was lost for more than 80 years, but writes ABC News, “it has been rediscovered thanks to years of detective work by Chris Latham, a violinist and director of the Canberra International Music Festival”. Read the interesting article and view a short film clip about the ‘rediscovery’ here.

Jelly D’Aranyi (1893-1966) became a famous violinist. Listen to D’Aranyi playing a piece by Brahms here below:

Armistice Day Celebrated With Music By F.S. Kelly

On Thursday Armistice Day was celebrated in Great Britain (in the USA it is called Veterans Day) and yesterday The Guardian published a short article about a music piece played on BBC radio 3. The newspaper writes that it was "wholly right for Armistice Day", Elegy for String Orchestra by Frederick Septimus Kelly. In the rowing history world the composer is more known as F.S. Kelly, famous Henley winner and Olympic rowing champion. To read the article in The Guardian, click here. To read two earlier pieces about F.S. Kelly on HTBS (9 September 2009), please click here.

F. S. Kelly – A Life of Rowing and Music 2

Here the F. S. Kelly story continues:

Already in 1903, Kelly went to Germany as a music student, and would be there on and off. It was in Frankfurt at a café he read the article about his old rival, Lou F. Scholes, and the Olympic rowing in Henley at the end of July 1908. Kelly would not get his revenge as the Canadian was beaten in his first heat, and Kelly would not be picked to represent Great Britain in the single scull. Instead he was asked by Leander’s coach, ‘Tarka’ Gold, to train and race in the club’s eight, which was going to be Britain’s second boat in the Olympic eights; the first eight was from Cambridge. From 18 June, on a daily basis, Kelly wrote down in his diary the laborious training he and his fellow oarsmen in the eight went through. The ‘old men’ of Leander – two others were Guy Nickalls and R. B. Etherington-Smith - won the Olympic gold in the eights, giving Kelly another medal to his collection. The Olympic champion race would be Kelly’s last rowing race.

A couple of weeks after the Olympic rowing, an important printed work on rowing saw the light of day, The Complete Oarsman by R. C. Lehmann, who was a Liberal MP, a contributor to Punch, a poet, and an authority on rowing. The book also has chapters written by other authorities of the sport. The section on sculling was written by, as Lehmann elegantly put it, ‘Mr. F. S. Kelly, the master of the art.’ Even if this chapter was written 100 years ago, there are still some highly valuable pointers about sculling technique for today’s scullers. Kelly’s chapter was illustrated with twelve black & white photographs of the author in his shell.

After 1908, Kelly fully concentrated on his music career. He would, however, now and then be remembered for his extraordinary rowing career. After giving a concert on 17 October 1910, Kelly and his friend, the cellist Pablo Casals, were reading the newspaper critiques on a train from Newcastle to London. Kelly wrote in his diary on 18 October 1910: ‘On the whole they were fairly just, but one critic said a thing which I foresee will be repeated wherever it is known that I was a sculler – i.e. my playing was perhaps a little too muscular for an interpretation of Chopin.’

Kelly made his professional debut as a pianist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Town Hall on 17 June 1911. He played the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 in G, op.59. The critics in the Sydney papers were delighted, which could not be said about the London critics when Kelly performed in England the following year. He continued his professional performances sporadically, but at the outbreak of the war in 1914, he enlisted in the 63rd Royal Naval Division, and was involved in the defence of Antwerp. When sailing to the Dardanelles with the Hood Battalion, he befriended fellow pianist and composer William Denis Browne and the poet Rupert Brooke, whose most famous lines are from his poem ‘The Soldier’: If I should die think only this of me: / That there's some corner of a foreign field / That is for ever England. /

Brooke did not reach the Dardanelles. En route, he contracted septicaemia after a mosquito bite and died on 23 April 1915. He was buried on the Greek island of Skyros with his friends Kelly and Browne present. Both Kelly and Browne were wounded at the ill-fated campaign at Gallipoli. While recuperating, Kelly wrote the Elegy for string orchestra in memory of Brooke. Although not fully well, Browne rejoined his unit and was fatally wounded at the Third Battle at Krithia on 4 June 1915. His body was never found. Kelly returned to Gallipoli in July and was among the last soldiers to be evacuated off the Gallipoli Peninsula. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for ‘conspicuous gallantry’ at Gallipoli.

The Hood Battalion was shipped to France in May 1916. At the end of the great Battle of the Somme, Kelly was killed on 13 November, age 35, while leading an attack against enemy lines at Beaucourt-sur-Ancre. Frederick Septimus Kelly now rests in a grave at Martinsart British Cemetery, Somme.

In May 1915, Kelly’s sister Maisie married Captain John Kelly (not related), whom later reached the rank of Admiral and for whom the famous destroyer, commanded by Mountbatten, was named. F. S. Kelly’s diaries, which he began to write in 1907, were bought by the National Library of Australia in 1979, and were published under the title Race Against Time – The Diaries of F.S. Kelly, selected, edited and introduced by Thérese Radic in 2004.

* * *

Acknowledgement: Writing this two-piece article, a very good source of information about F.S. Kelly’s early life and his music studies has been Race Against Time – The Diaries of F.S. Kelly, which was selected, edited and introduced by Thérese Radic. Dr. Radic has very kindly allowed me to use her research for this article, for which I am immensely grateful.

F. S. Kelly – A Life of Rowing and Music 1

While in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, to study piano and composition at Dr. Hoch Konservatorium, F. S. Kelly one day picks up a copy of The Times where he reads that Lou F. Scholes is going to represent Canada in the single scull at the Olympic rowing regatta in Henley-on-Thames. In his diary the same day, 10 May 1908, Kelly writes that the news ‘roused my fighting spirit so much that I went off to ask Director Scholz about the date of the Concert at which I am to play and conduct, to find out for certain whether it will possible for me to scull and have my revenge.’

This entry in Kelly’s diary gives an excellent illustration of what was close to his heart: music and rowing.

Frederick Septimus Kelly was born on 29 May 1881 in Sydney. Frederick was the seventh child of Thomas Hussey Kelly, a wealthy Irish businessman, and his wife, Mary Anne, born in Australia. Like his brothers, ‘Sep’, as he was called by the family, was sent to Eton, where he began to row in 1897 - stroking the eight to victory in the Ladies’ Plate at the Henley Royal Regatta in 1899. As a Lewis Nettleship musical scholar, he went up to Balliol College at Oxford. In Oxford, Kelly – or ‘Cleg’ as he was known there - also took up sculling, winning the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley for his college in 1902. On his way to his first Diamond victory, he beat prominent scullers as A. H. Cloutte (London RC), C. S. Titus (Union BC, New York), and R. B. Etherington-Smith (Leander Club).

The following year was very successful for Kelly, although his Oxford eight lost the Boat Race. In the cerise colours of Leander Club, Kelly won the Wingfield Sculls, and the Grand and the Diamond trophies at Henley. After his first Diamonds, Kelly had rapidly been regarded as a brilliant sculler. At his second Diamonds, he easily sculled away from Julius Beresford (Kensington RC) and H. T. Blackstaffe (Vesta RC) to claim the trophy. A contemporary source wrote that ‘his swinging and sliding were perfect in unison and symmetry’ and another one said, ‘that the grace with which his hands left the body at the finish of the stroke was like the down-ward beat of a swallow’s wing.’

It was, therefore, all the more surprising when, in a heat in the Diamonds in 1904, Lou F. Scholes of Toronto RC defeated Kelly. Scholes had been two lengths behind at Remenham, when suddenly he put on a spurt and easily gained on Kelly. At the Grand Stand, Kelly was two lengths behind and, totally exhausted, had to stop. He was lifted out of his shell into a launch while the Toronto oarsman crossed the finish line. The Henley crowd was astonished that ‘a sculler with the style of the Canadian, who depended on his arms and legs, and was without body swing, could beat one with the easy and natural form of the Anglo-Australian.’

One reason for the loss, T. A. Cook wrote, was that Kelly had only trained in his boat for three weeks before his first race in the Diamonds that year. Kelly’s unwillingness to train, made Vivian Nickalls write in his Oars, Wars, and Horses (1932) that Kelly ‘hated training and spent his whole time playing the violin.’ Vivian’s brother, Guy, agreed and wrote in his posthumous published memoirs, Life’s a Pudding (1939), that Kelly ‘was most likely the fastest sculler of all time – quick, neat and polished’ but added solemnly ‘a difficult man to train.’ Unfortunately, Vivian Nickalls’s comment about which instrument Kelly played would later make rowing historians joke and incorrectly remark that Kelly was a sculling ‘fiddler’.

Revengeful at the 1905 Henley Royal Regatta, Kelly easily outclassed all his opponents in the Diamonds (Scholes was not competing), trashing poor Blackstaffe in the final with 15 seconds, winning in the new record time, 8 minutes, 10 seconds, beating the Canadian’s record time from the previous year by 13 seconds. Kelly’s record would last until 1938, when the American Joe Burk knocked 8 seconds off Kelly’s time. In 1905, Kelly would also win the Grand (as he had done in 1904), and adding another triumph in 1906 in the Stewards’ Cup.

In Kelly’s personal life, his father’s death in 1901, and his mother’s death the following year, was a hard blow for Kelly, whose academic studies suffered, and he graduated with fourth-class honours in history. However, his father’s passing left Kelly economically independent, which allowed him to set up a comfortable life with his sister Mary, ‘Maisie’, at Bisham Grange, a house close to Marlow. There they lived a high-society life with trips to London and abroad. Kelly, with his good-looks, was also invited by aristocratic friends to give piano concerts in their country houses.

To be continued...