Full dress shoulder belt and pouch : Lieutenant Colonel R Vandeleur Kelly, NSW Army Medical Corps

Curved full dress black patent leather shoulder belt decorated with three lines of gold bullion wire. An engraved gilded brass buckle, slide and tip are attached to one end of the belt. A black patent leather pouch is attached to the belt. The top flap bears a gilded brass NSW Military Forces badge bordered by two lines of gold bullion wire and fastens to the pouch via a brass post. The sides of the pouch are fitted with an ornate gilded escutcheon plate and loop which allows it to be attached to the belt.

Related to the service of Robert Vandeleur Kelly. Kelly was born at Glencara, Ireland on 26 July 1843 and educated at Bonn and later at the King's School, Parramatta. He studied medicine at Edinburgh, graduating in 1873, and worked as a dispensary medical officer in the Westmeath Militia. Following his marriage in 1877 and a further 12 years as medical surgeon associated with a number of militia units, Kelly emigrated to Australia in 1889. Here, he established a practice in Sydney. Commissioned in the NSW Military Forces on 12 October 1889 and promoted to surgeon major on 9 January 1896, Kelly was the founder of the St John Ambulance Corps in NSW in 1890. As a temporary lieutenant colonel, Kelly served with the second and third contingents to the Boer War, commanding the NSW Army Medical Corps and serving in the Transvaal, Orange River Colony and was mentioned in dispatches. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1902 and died in 1913. He can be seen wearing this belt and pouch in image P05942.001.