South Yorkshire Times December 8, 1951
Conisbrough Inquest Adjourned
El Alamein Hero
The inquest on John Kelly (38), of 13, March Street, Conisbrough was opened on Saturday, at Conisbrough and adjourned to January 2nd. Kelly, an ex-miner, died at his home last Thursday.
The Doncaster District Coroner, Mr W. H. Carlile, told the widow, Mrs Edith Kelly, that her husband could not be cremated. Following the post-mortem, further investigations would have to be made, and it was only possible for a normal burial.
Mrs Kelly identified her husband and said that he joined the Territorial Army in May, 1939, and was called up into the Royal Artillery at the outbreak of war. After Dunkirk he went to Egypt and Syria, and fought in the El Alamein and North Africa campaigns. He was wounded in Italy and was invalided out of the Army in 1944, as totally unfit for further military service.
After attention in Wharncliffe Hospital, Sheffield, he returned home and after a light job in Swinton began work on a pit sinking job at Woolley Colliery.
No pension had been granted Kelly after his discharge, but she eventually succeeded in obtaining a 50 per cent. disability pension after Kelly had been seen by a specialist at Leeds.
Paralysis started in Kelly’s right hand, got worse and spread all over his body. A Sheffield Infirmary specialists said he was suffering from muscular atrophy. He had been unable to work since 1947.