Kelly, Frederick Septimus
Date Born/Est
28 May 1881
Date Died/Ceased
13 Nov 1916
Biographical Display
FREDERICK KELLY, Olympic champion, composer and musician
Frederick Kelly was an Australian educated at Sydney grammar school, Eton, Balliol and the Hochschule Konservatorium, Frankfurt. He learned to sail on family yachts on Sydney harbour, stroked Eton's eight in 1899 (winning the Ladies' Plate and losing the final of the Grand), rowed for Oxford in 1903, won the Grand from 1903-05 and the Stewards' in 1906, and won gold in the GB Olympic eight in 1908.
He won the Diamond Sculls as a novice in 1902, and won again in 1903 and 1905, losing in 1904. The record of 8 minutes 10 seconds he set in 1905 lowered the fastest time by 13 seconds and stood until Joe Burke beat it in 1938. He also won the Wingfields in 1903 and contributed a chapter to Lehmann's The Complete Oarsman (1908). He was a fine football, fives and tennis player, and a good mountaineer and skater.
Kelly became an accomplished pianist and composer, playing with the likes of Pablo Casals, Percy Grainger and Edward Elgar. In 1914 he joined the navy and sailed to the Dardenelles with Rupert Brooke. Twice mentioned in dispatches, he was awarded the DSC in Gallipoli. On the Somme he lead community singing of folksongs and shanties, and directed the Hood battalion band in Tchaikovsky's '1812' during a bombardment in Noulette wood. He was shot in the head when rushing a German machine gun at Beaucourt-sur-Ancre on 13 November 1916.
Frederick Kelly was an Australian educated at Sydney grammar school, Eton, Balliol and the Hochschule Konservatorium, Frankfurt. He learned to sail on family yachts on Sydney harbour, stroked Eton's eight in 1899 (winning the Ladies' Plate and losing the final of the Grand), rowed for Oxford in 1903, won the Grand from 1903-05 and the Stewards' in 1906, and won gold in the GB Olympic eight in 1908.
He won the Diamond Sculls as a novice in 1902, and won again in 1903 and 1905, losing in 1904. The record of 8 minutes 10 seconds he set in 1905 lowered the fastest time by 13 seconds and stood until Joe Burke beat it in 1938. He also won the Wingfields in 1903 and contributed a chapter to Lehmann's The Complete Oarsman (1908). He was a fine football, fives and tennis player, and a good mountaineer and skater.
Kelly became an accomplished pianist and composer, playing with the likes of Pablo Casals, Percy Grainger and Edward Elgar. In 1914 he joined the navy and sailed to the Dardenelles with Rupert Brooke. Twice mentioned in dispatches, he was awarded the DSC in Gallipoli. On the Somme he lead community singing of folksongs and shanties, and directed the Hood battalion band in Tchaikovsky's '1812' during a bombardment in Noulette wood. He was shot in the head when rushing a German machine gun at Beaucourt-sur-Ancre on 13 November 1916.
Place Of Birth
Sydney/Australia
Place Of Death
France/Europe
