George Gordon Greene-Kelly was born on July 11, 1886 in County Dublin, Ireland. By 1901 he was attending school and living at 24 Belgrave Square, Monkstown Dublin with his widowed mother Elizabeth, his older brother Frederick William (attending Medical School) and a domestic servant.
In January 1915 he applied for a commission stating that he had been a member of his School Cadet Corps and the Planters Volunteer Mounted Corps, Malacca. He was accepted and commissioned on February 4, 1915 as a temporary Second Lieutenant with the 10th Battalion, The Prince of Wales’s Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment).
He deployed to Gallipoli, and on October 7, 1915 was attached to the 1/9th Battalion, Manchester Regiment along with 4 other junior officers from the Essex and South Lancashire Regiments. There is no official mention of his movements or activities at Gallipoli with the 9th Manchesters and on December 8, 1915 he was transferred and attached to the 10th Manchesters along with another subaltern, 2/Lt. Laird Kirwan, who had arrived with him on October 7.
2/Lt. Greene-Kelly remained with the 10th Manchesters as they evacuated the Gallipoli Peninsula and moved to Egypt. On March 14, 1916 he was transferred to the 126th Brigade, 42nd Division Machine Gun Company at Shalufa. He spent a week in hospital at Suez in April and on May 20th was made temporary Lieutenant. In October he was granted 5 weeks leave in England and departed Port Said on the SS Caledonian on October 13th. After his leave was over, he embarked the Indulgence in Marseilles on November 13th rejoining the Machine Gun Company in Al Mazār, Northern Sinai, on November 27th. The pursuit of the Turkish forces across the Northern Sinai proceeded without incident and the 42nd Division marched into El Arish in January 1917. After a relaxing two weeks by the sea, they were ordered back to the Suez Canal in preparation of deployment to France.
The Machine Gun Company embarked for Marseilles, at Alexandria on February 2, 1917 sailing on the HT Huntspill, disembarking on March 6th. Lt. Greene-Kelly fought with the Machine Gun Corps in France throughout 1917 taking home leave from July 8-20 and again from January 11-27, 1918. Immediately upon his return he was recalled to England leaving the Machine Gun Company on January 29, 1918. He spent the remainder of the war in England.
On November 18, 1918 he returned to France and reported to Terlincthun Chateau, Boulogne for duty as War Workers Conducting Officer with the Military Inter Allied Commission of Control. Two weeks later he was granted the rank of temporary Major while so employed. The disarmament provisions of the Armistice, in November 1918, and of the Treaty of Versailles fourteen months later were primarily carried out by the Military Inter Allied Commission of Control. He remained with them until October 21, 1921 when he resigned his commission, retaining the rank of Major, but by this time he was based in Berlin.
He remained in Berlin and started his own import / export business, Gordon Kelly Export House. On September 20, 1923 he married Paula Gertrude Karla Marie Kuhlewind and they remained in Berlin after the marriage. In May 1924 their son, Ronald Gordon Greene-Kelly was born and around that time he applied for an educational sponsorship from the Army for former officers who wanted to attend a business course at a London university but was rejected as he had not served in the regular forces. By 1926 the family had moved to Hendon, London and they remained there until he died in December 1932.
Major George Gordon Greene-Kelly was just 46 years old. He was survived by his wife, his son, his mother and his older brother.