John Sherwood Kelly (13 January 1880 – 18 August 1931) was a South African recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. The four-times-wounded Kelly was not a Regular officer but a formidable and experienced commander with a combat record going back to the 1896 Matabele Revolt. During his military career he achieved fame and notoriety for his mixture of heroic exploits and explosive temperament. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his exploits in Gallipoli in February 1916 and on 1 January 1917 was awarded the Companion of St Michael and St George (CMG). During the summer and autumn of 1917 he commanded 1st Battalion, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and was instrumental in the early success achieved during the Battle of Cambrai on 20 November for which he received the Victoria Cross from King George V at Buckingham Palace on 23 January 1918. Kelly was gassed and wounded at various times. Early life Sherwood-Kelly was born in Queenstown in the Cape Colony (modern Eastern Cape province) to an Anglo (English-speaking) family. His father, James Kelly, was born in Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland and settled in South Africa after serving in the British Army. His mother, Elizabeth Didcott, was born in Winchester and followed her husband to South Africa when he purchased a farm on the veld in the early 1870s. James Kelly served in the para-military Frontier Armed and Mounted Police, and as such the Kelly family was itinerant, moving about from one place to another in the Cape Colony. The longest period that Sherwood-Kelly stayed in one place during his youth was when his father was stationed in the area that later became Transkei. His mother died when he was 12 and his twin brother was killed falling from a horse when he was 13. His father subsequently married their governess giving him three half-siblings. He was educated in South Africa at Grahamstown (St. Andrew's College and St Aidan's), King Williamstown (Dale College) and Queenstown (Queen's College). From his earliest years, Sherwood-Kelly was known in the words of the British historian Roderick Bailey as "an outspoken man with a fiery temper". At 16 he fought in Matebeleland. He joined the para-military Cape Mounted Police and was at the Relief of Mafeking in South Africa. During the Boer