General service whistle on lanyard : Sergeant J R C Kelly, Elope Force, North Russia

Standard tube bodied nickle-plated police style whistle with pair of opposed windows, lead fipple and integral suspension loop. Impressed into one side of the loop are the maker's details and, on the other, a broad arrow mark. A dirty cotton cord with a looped neckpiece is attached to the loop.

General service whistle in the police pattern issued to and used by Sergeant John Robert Cowan Kelly, born Newcastle, NSW on 17 June 1893; a clerk of Glen Innes, NSW, who enlisted at Liverpool on 23 July 1915, one of two brothers to serve (the other being 219 Driver William Dill Kelly). Under service number 453, he was assigned to B Company, 30 Battalion which was formed at Liverpool two weeks after his enlistment, drawing mainly from Newcastle residents. The battalion embarked for overseas service aboard transport 'Beltana' which left Sydney on 9 November, arriving at Suez on 11 December. It trained with the other battalions already assembled in Egypt before departing for France via Marseilles in late June 1916. Kelly was promoted to corporal on 1 May. His unit's first action was at Fromelles, providing carrying parties for supplies and ammunition but was soon drawn into the vicious fighting. Corporal Kelly was wounded here on the second day of fighting, on 20 July 1916 when he was shot in the back. He was evacuated via 1 Australian Casualty Clearing Station, through Calais to Number 3 (North) Hospital at Sheffield.

He was released back into training at Hurdcott and attached to 15 Training Battalion on 30 November. He remained with this unit throughout the first half of 1917 before being detached to HQ, No 5 (C) Group on 22 July 1917 and on 7 November was taken on strength of permanent cadre of 3 Training Battalion at Codford and promoted to Extra Regimental Sergeant. A later appointment as ER Sergeant, School of Musketry on 1 November 1918 suggests his musketry skills were of a high order. In early May 1918 Kelly temporarily returned to 30 Battalion before being transferred to Elope Force on 27 May. Elope Force was the British military mission to Russia which attempted to shore up the eastern front, prevent German incursions into northwest Russia and train Russian troops. Sergeant Kelly was among the first Australians involved in this first mission of 560 men, which, as Jeffrey Grey notes, was 'made up of experienced officers and NCOs drawn from both the imperial and dominion armies at that time fighting in France. Their job was to train a Russian force in the area as the first step in the formation of a new eastern front. The Australian group of six sergeants and three officers had been chosen from between twenty-five and thirty men selected by AIF headquarters in April 1918 in response to a British request for experienced soldiers to take part in a secret mission. All had seen considerable service in France, with three being veterans of the Gallipoli campaign'.
Elope Force embarked at Newcastle aboard SS 'City of Marseilles' on 16 June and arrived at Murmansk on the 23rd, where another unit was landed. Kelly's unit then sailed on to Archangel after a stop of some five weeks' duration. The men were then split up and sent to different forces - it is thought that Sergeant Kelly was involved in the training of various White Russian and White Finnish units in firearms training. The unit was evacuated (or in some cases rescued) when their Russian charges mutinied; one Australian, Sergeant Brown, was murdered. After being iced in over winter, public reaction to the ineffectiveness and isolation of the men involved led to the unit being evacuated and this was accomplished on 17 June 1919 when the men boarded the SS 'Pretorian'. In fact, a second force, the North Russian Relief Force, was created to protect the evacuation. After reporting to AIF Headquarters in London on 27 June and taking leave, Sergeant Kelly returned to Australia aboard the transport 'Ajana', and was discharged soon after. An image of the group of Australian sergeants prior to their departure for Russia can be viewed at P00454.002.
John Kelly died on 6 August 1985.