Alfred Theodore "Ted" Kelley was born on June 24, 1920, in Kansas City, Wyandotte County, Kansas. He was the son of Fred H. Kelley and Myrtle T. Whitehair Kelley.
A male nurse by trade and residing on South National Street in Springfield, Missouri, he enlisted in the RCAF on September 5, 1941, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. During World War II, Alfred served in the 15 (R.A.F.) Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force as a Flight Sergeant.
On December 8, 1942, aboard Short Stirling I (W7635) aircraft with an aircrew of seven, they took off from RAF Bourn on a 'Gardening Sweet Peas' air operation (laying mines in Germany's Rostock and Arcone Light area in the Baltic southeast of Lolland and Falster islands). W7635 was attacked by a German fighter aircraft and crashed into the North Sea, west of Denmark's Rømø Island, taking the lives of the entire crew.
The seven airmen who perished at sea in the attack and resulting crash were:
RAFVR Sergeant Henry Charles ADKINS,
RAFVR Sergeant Eric BANCE,
RAFVR Sergeant Jochemus Johannes BLIGNAUT,
RAFVR Sergeant Francis George CRAPP,
RCAF Flight Sergeant Alfred Theodore KELLEY,
RAFVR Sergeant Richard George OLIVER and
RFVR Sergeant Robert SKELTON.
On December 17, 1942, the body of Flight Sergeant Kelley was found to have drifted ashore on Denmark's Rømø Island near Lakolk; he was laid to rest in the Kirkeby cemetery on the following day.
Source of information: www.findagrave.com