1963 MALLORCA
Appartado 64 Soller, Mallorca, Spain
Where should they go next? Crete, Greece? Friends said try Mallorca first. They arrived and got no further, berthing next door to Mike and Jossie who became their friends.
There are no photographs of this time, no letters, no documents or clues. But above all I ask – why did I never visit him here? Such madness.
RAF Club visits
While my mother and I were in contact with Richard, visiting Richard and Kitty on their annal visits to the RAF In and OUT club, my deep regret is never visiting them in Majorca. The annual visit was an event we looked forward to. They came around November 11th, a difficult time for my mother as my father had died around this time, and although nothning was said, I felt her sadness. Their arrival often bought the otherwise unlinked Kellett family together. There was strong drinks before hand, (G&T) and I can remember loving the prawn cocktail! Richard would know all the waiters names. Sometimes he came on his own, sometimes with Kitty.
1981 Letter sent by Tim Harris in 2026 from Max Hastings. Tim writes: A friend of my deceased sister Janine has just kindly sent me a copy of Max Hastings’ book Bomber Command which he found in his possession. It is heavily annotated in the margins by my father, and I know he wrote to the author correcting some of the errors regarding your uncle.
1985 Maise House, 18 Hastings Road, Bexhill
Kitty’s health deteriorating, Richard decided to return to the UK. He found Maise House, run by the Royal British Legion, catering for ex Servicemen and women, and they moved lock stock and barrel here.
Kitty died in 1987.Was it only 3 years? It must have been. After Kitty’s death I began visiting Richard regularly. We’d go out searching for pubs which sold Guinness on draft and over this drink I began to hear his colourful life story. He was not a loquacious talker, careful with his words, curtailed by conditioned modesty and school boy humour. I liked him. He was the last link to my father who I never knew. I looked forward to our adventures, as modest as they were compared to his through his life. We’d jest about the aging population of Bexhill. I see from a collage of photographs I did for him, I must have taken my mother down Easter 1989. She died in October that year. How well and happy she looks in this photograph.
A rare photograph of two family groups, Tori (daughter of Edward Kellett) and her family (Charlie, Tom, Jeremy) and Simon (son of Gerard Kellett) and his family (Angela, and Kate)
Richard death and obituary
I came back from Belgium and was with Richard when he died. He was the 2nd person I had the grace to be with when they leave their body, my mother the year before. I cannot remember the funeral – can anyone?
Richard left me enough money to pay a deposit on my London flat, 31 Linden Gardens, Nottinghill Gate, the financial foundation I am grateful for today. I did get out to Majorca, many years later, where I searched out his memory, and found Robert Graves.
Kalikellett 