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Clarence Ahab Russell KELLET
| Rank | Reg/Ser No | DOB | Enlisted | Discharge/Death | Board |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | 21y4m | 1 Jun 1916 | 19 Jun 1916 | 2 |
Clarence Ahab Russell Kellet (1895 - 1988)
The Kellet Family
Ahab and Matilda Kellet were living in Brisbane at the time of the Great War but they moved from place to place in Eastern Australia throughout Mr Kellet’s career as a public servant in the PMG1 Department. After their marriage in Victoria in 1892, Ahab Kellet and Matilda Edith Rogerson née Witham lived in turn at Richmond in Melbourne, Warrnambool and Hawthorn in Melbourne. In Brisbane the family lived at Indooroopilly and later at Coopers Plains.
In 1919 the Kellets transferred to Rockhampton till Mr Ahab Kellet’s retirement in about 1936 after which they settled at Wollongong in New South Wales. They had one daughter followed by four sons. The names of two of their boys (Russell and Robert) are on honour boards in the Merrington Anzac Memorial Peace Chapel but only one of them (Robert Roy Moorhead Kellet) actually served in the Australian Imperial Force in World War 1. Mr Ahab Kellet died in Wollongong in 1941 and his widow died at Greenwich, New South Wales in 1944.
Clarence Ahab Russell Kellet
Clarence Ahab Russell Kellet (known as Russell) was born in Warrnambool in Victoria in 1895, the eldest son of Ahab and Matilda Kellet.
He was a law clerk when he enlisted for service in the Australian Imperial Force at Prahan, Victoria in June 1916 but was medically unfit and was not allotted to any unit. He never served in the AIF.
Russell Kellet lived for a short time in Hobart where he danced with Gwen Gaylor in December 1919 in a performance at the Theatre Royal of the Japanese opera, The Princess Kiku.
He later married Gwendoline Victoria Gaylor and the couple lived in Sydney suburbs including Bronte in the 1930s and Malabar from the 1940s till the 1980s. In electoral rolls, Clarence Ahab Russell Kellet was usually recorded as a clerk, though he was shown in 1930 as a tramway employee. Mrs Gwendoline Kellet died in 1985 at the age of 88 years and Russell Kellet’s death is recorded in 1988 at the age of 93 years.
Compiled by Noel Edward Adsett, Brisbane. March 2016, Revised 2020 ©
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