Preceded by William McMillan Spouse(s) Olive Miller Role Australian Politician Succeeded by Walter Marks | Nationality Australian Name Willie Kelly Education Eton College Resigned November 3, 1919 | |
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Born 1 December 1877
Sydney, New South Wales ( 1877-12-01 ) Died January 27, 1960, Camperdown, Australia Political party Free Trade Party, Commonwealth Liberal Party, Nationalist Party of Australia | ||
William Henry "Willie" Kelly (1 December 1877 – 27 January 1960) was an Australian politician.
Biography
Kelly was born in Sydney and educated at All Saints College, Bathurst, and Eton College from 1893 to 1896. He married Olive Miller (better-known under the stage name of Olive Morrell) in London in January 1908.
In 1903 Kelly was elected to seat of Wentworth in the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Free Trade Party. From June 1913 to September 1914 he was Minister without portfolio and acting minister for home affairs in Joseph Cook's Commonwealth Liberal Party Ministry. He reversed King O'Malley's decision to build Walter Burley Griffin's plan for Canberra using the departmental plan and instead appointed Griffin as Federal capital director of design and construction. He also negotiated a plan for standardisation of Australia's rail gauge, but this was scrapped when the Fisher government came to power in September 1914. He was in opposition until the formation of the Nationalist Government in February 1917. He did not get a ministry in the Hughes government and retired at the 1919 election.
Kelly separated from his wife, who took their daughter back to England. He died at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in the Sydney suburb of Camperdown, aged eighty-two.
His younger brother was the composer and oarsman Frederick Septimus Kelly.