Kellas, Arthur
Rank: Major, R.A.M.C.
Regiment: 1st Highland Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, attached to 29th Division, Gallipoli
Biography: Son of James F. Kellas. Born Aberdeen, 1 March 1883; educated Aberdeen Grammar School; graduated M.B., 1906; D.P.H., 1907. He was doing valuable work as Senior Assistant at the Royal Asylum, Aberdeen, when war broke out. In 1901 Kellas joined the R.A.M.C. (T.F.), and later the University Corps of the Scottish Horse. In 1909 he was commissioned in the R.A.M.C., and on the outbreak of war was mobilized as a Captain with the 1st Highland Field Ambulance. At Bedford he proved a keen and efficient section commander, whose obvious fairness and justice earned the complete confidence and devotion of his men, in spite of the strictness of his discipline. The unit proceeded to Gallipoli as part of the 29th Division, and in that strenuous and unique campaign he did gallant work in the forward area, until he was killed on the morning of the 6th August 1915, while making a final inspection before an impending battle at Cape Helles, which was to cover the opening moves of the Suvla Bay landing. Thus gallantly died an officer who had not only a fine reputation in his own unit, but also in a famous Division which had performed a feat unparalleled in history. Kellas was a man of great reserve and only his intimates could appreciate his high ideals, his keen sense of humour and his full enjoyment of life. He was a delightful companion, a keen observer with a great gift for detail and for logical analysis; this was no doubt developed in the thorough training he went through for his professional work in Mental Science, to which branch of medicine his early death was an undoubted loss.
Date of Death: 06 August 1915
Burial Details: Buried at Lancashire Landing Cemetery, Helles, Row A, Grave 64.
Publication: Roll of Service, edited by Mabel Desborough Allardyce. Published 1921.
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