Douglas Kelsey was born in Glasgow in 1896. His father, William Henry was a wireworker, and his mother was called Mary Ann Cook. They had been married in Wolverhampton in 1893, and Leonard, Douglas’ older brother, had been born there before the family travelled to Scotland to live.
In the 1911 census, Douglas is recorded as a visitor at the lodgings of the Rev. Walter Scott Adams, in Daresbury, and is employed as a messenger for the Glasgow District Messaging Company. It would seem that the Kelsey family knew Rev Adams from his time as curate at Christ Church in Glasgow, and that he acted as a guardian to Douglas. When war broke out, Doug enlisted in the South Lancashire Regiment, and on the Medal rolls he is recorded as Douglas Kelsey S, or Scott, Adams.
After the war, he worked as a railway fireman, or engine driver, and in 1922, he married Ethel Maud Pollard, daughter of Frederick and Alice, of Newton-by- Daresbury, at Daresbury church. Walter Scott Adams came from his parish in Manchester to conduct the ceremony, alongside the vicar of All Saints.
Douglas and Ethel had two daughters, Alice Mary and Dorothy Mildred, who were born in Daresbury. Then the family went to live in Glasgow where, sadly, Alice died.
In 1944, at the age of only 47 years, Douglas developed pneumonia and died, and Ethel and Dorothy returned to Daresbury to live.