FIGHTING FOR THE EMPIRE - A FASCINATING TALE ABOUT A REMARKABLE IRISHMAN

A couple of months before the Covid pandemic changed our lives, our special guest on Phoenix98fm radio's Book Club, was the author David Worsfold. For more than forty years David has written for national newspapers, as well as a wide-range of specialist publications. On that occasion, among numerous other topics, we discussed his book FIGHTING FOR THE EMPIRE published by Sabrestorm.  

Our listeners learnt about the life of Colonel Thomas Bernard Kelly (His wife's grandfather) 1870-1949) who was a truly remarkable Catholic Irishman, born in Galway and who dedicated his life to the British Crown and its Empire for almost fifty years. 

Kelly's story covers his military career which took in countless conflicts including two World Wars, with acts of heroism and interesting encounters with British royalty. This energetic Irish doctor led the most amazing life and the reader learns so much about the history of India and tales that were rarely reported or even known about at the time. 

Thomas Kelly was at the epicentre of a battle to stop a plague spreading to India 120 years ago. He had the almost impossible task of combating plague deniers, opposition to vaccinations and so many more problems. It's strange how history repeats itself!

Thomas Kelly might well have remained a mere footnote to history had not David Worsfold given himself the challenge to discover as much as he could about this military and naval medic whose extraordinary career took him to India, into Tibet with the Younghusband mission, Mesopotamia and Aden in World War I then back to South Asia. 

Retirement to Jersey and then London was brought to a welcome end with the outbreak of World War II, giving Dr Kelly the opportunity to put in more years of service around the globe. He sounds something of a dry stick, a teetotaller and non-smoker, which cannot have made him popular in the officers' mess and he was something of a puritan, though quite advanced in his medical views. 

Everyone thought of him as a confirmed bachelor until he suddenly married at the age of 48 a nurse met on the line of duty. They had two daughters, but not the son he craved, and it clearly was not only the lure of extra money that subsequently sent him off on long sea duties. In many ways his closest relationship was with his sister, who spent her whole adult life as a nun in a convent in their home town of Galway. Despite his Irish Catholic heritage, Kelly was a loyal servant of the British Empire, though by no means enamoured of all members of the British royal family. Apparently he wrote countless letters to a sister, of which only a small number survive, which is a pity, as it means David Worsfold has had to rely more on other people's reactions to events, which means that his subject at times appears peripheral rather than central. 

But this labour of love, lavishly illustrated with photographs and documents, is nonetheless fascinating, largely because Kelly was so often right where everything was happening.