In June 1915 Thomas Herbert Kelsey (1890-1962) of Motukaraka left his job as a builder in the family joinery firm to join the Auckland Regiment. He embarked in October that year serving briefly in Egypt before travelling to the Western Front.

In July 1917 he was on leave in the UK when he took ill and was admitted to No 2 NZ General Hospital at Walton-on-Thames. This is probably when he first met Henry Pickerill, a dental surgeon who had established a unit for the treatment of facial and jaw injuries at No. 2NZGH. The family story is that the medical staff was so impressed by Tom Kelsey’s model of Kaiser Bill, and started using his skills to sculpt facial reconstructions for men who had suffered disfiguring head wounds. His work and skill was valued so much that when the unit was transferred to Sidcup Hospital Tom Kelsey went with them ad was given the rank of Temporary Sergeant. In Sidcup he met his future wife Lilian and the couple married just a week before Tom embarked for New Zealand in March 1919.

Following his discharge later that year he went to work with Dr Pickerill at the Jaw Unit, Otago Hospital. The family built a home here and Tom Kelsey stayed on at the Otago School of Medicine working at the School of Dentistry creating teaching models and later at the School of Anatomy Museum. While in Dunedin Kelsey also created a number of other models and dioramas including a diorama of a Moa Hunter Camp site and a complete model of Mapoutahi Pa, Goat Island for the Otago University Museum. He also made model farmsteads for the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, and wax models for drapery for a Canterbury retailer.

He appears to have returned north circa 1930 and in 1931 travelled to England with his wife and daughters “to make a study of museum work, especially in connection with the use of ethnographic models, and the development of the popular side of the various institutions here”. (Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 137, 12 June 1931, Page 3).

In his later years Thomas Kelsey resided at the Ranfurly Home, and while there worked up a series of watercolours relating to his WW1 experiences.

"N" or "I V" (owner's identification)

"N" or "I V" (owner's identification)

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