Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Corporal Hugh Lawrence Kelly (Service No:45167) enlisted in the RAAF on 10 July 1941 and was an Aircraftman I (mustered as Flight Rigger; remustered as Fitter) at 4 Recruit Depot Pearce. By 1943 he was a Leading Aircraftman at No 7 Aircraft Depot Tocumal and then 79 Squadron. Corporal Kelly was attached to Station HQ Pearce at Discharge on 18 March 1948.

Hugh - born in 1918 in Bridgetown, WA - was the fifth of twelve children of Osswin (Oss) John Kelly (b1893 in Warragul, Victoria) and Amy (Nita) Juanita Lawrence (b1892 in Bunbury, WA). By 1898 Oss was living in Donnybrook, WA with his parents and siblings, and in 1910 he was a Labourer in Greenbushes WA when he and Nita married. Oss and Nita lived in Greenbushes, Manjimup, Jardee, Blackwood and Pemberton where they raised their family and Oss worked at the State Mills as a Teamster and then a Fitter's Labourer. Oss was killed in an accident in the Pemberton bush in 1934 and Nita died in 1957.

Hugh was a Timber Worker in Pemberton WA when he enlisted in the RAAF. In 1945 in Melbourne, Victoria Hugh married Norma Alice Beever (b1923 in Melbourne, Victoria) - Norma was a Milliner. Following his Discharge, Hugh and Norma settled in Melbourne where Hugh worked as a Butcher and Quarryman. In the mid 1970s the couple moved to Perth WA where Hugh died in 1978.