John Kelly

Bank: Westminster Bank

Place of work: Whitehaven branch

Died: 30 April 1941

John Middleton Kelly, known to his bank colleagues as Peter, was born on 2 February 1911, the son of John Allison Kelly, a merchant seaman, and Elinor Anne Kelly. He was educated at Rossall School and joined the staff of Westminster Bank in March 1929. Over the next decade he spent time based at the bank's Egremont, Cleator Moor and Whitehaven branches. Outside work he enjoyed playing rugby, and was captain of Moresby Rugby Union Club.

As a youth Kelly had been a member of his school's Officers' Training Corps, and as war began to look more likely early in 1939, he applied for a commission in the Territorial Army. He went away on active service with the Royal Artillery at the beginning of the Second World War. His first overseas service was as a Subaltern in Norway. He was later promoted to Lieutenant, and then Captain. 

Captain Kelly was killed in action in Libya on 30 April 1941. He was 30 years old and left a widow, Martina, whom he had married in 1935.