Donald A. Kerr
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Donald Alexander Kerr BA (10 April 1859 – 5 July 1919) was an Anglican minister and educator in South Australia, remembered for his period as headmaster of Pulteney Grammar School. His son, also Donald Kerr, was a highly regarded lawyer and legal scholar who survived three years as a stretcher-bearer at the front during World War I, and died after a foiled suicide.
History
Kerr was born in Clare, South Australia in 1859, a son of (William) Isaac Kerr (c. 1829 – 16 June 1859),[1] of some local interest, historically.[2][3][a] His mother Roberta Kerr (c. 1834 – 16 March 1861) also died young.[6] An order was raised for the guardianship of his children.[7]
He was educated at Stanley Grammar School in Watervale[1] and St Peter's College, matriculating in 1879.[8] He studied at the University of Adelaide, and was awarded his BA in 1883,[9] one of its first graduates, and was ordained in the Church of England in Adelaide, December 1883 and posted to the south-eastern mission.[10]
He served as minister of St Paul's church, Narracoorte, where he opened St Paul's Grammar School as headmaster in April 1884.[11] He suffered a breakdown in his health in November 1884.[12] Following the organisation of the Narracoorte, Lucindale, and Frances churches into an incumbency, a clergyman was appointed, who also took charge of the Grammar School[13] and Kerr was made assistant master at the Mount Gambier High School. He was forced by ill-health to return to Adelaide in August 1887.[14]
He was appointed a tutor at Prince Alfred College in 1888,[15] later second master, but resigned in 1891 on account of ill-health, and left for London by the ship Torrens for a "sea cure".[16] He returned in 1892 as a married man,[17] and resumed his duties at Prince Alfred's.[18]
In 1898 he replaced Rev. W. H. Howard as headmaster of Pulteney Street School.[19] He resigned in November 1900 due to ill-health, and was replaced by Rev. J. Benbow.[20] It was during his time as headmaster, in 1899, that he succeeded Canon Pollitt as Inspector of Church Schools in the Diocese of Adelaide.[21] serving to 1914.[22]
He conducted Glenelg Grammar School 1901[23]–1905, when the school was taken over by Rev. W. A. Moore, son of Rev. W. S. Moore.
As minister
His service as an educator alternated with religious duties: he was ordained deacon in 1884 and served as assistant curate at various churches, such as Christ Church, Strathalbyn, in 1886, then as curate at Christ Church, North Adelaide, 1896-1898. He served as parish priest in various locations: Mount Pleasant, in 1899, St Paul's Church, Adelaide, in 1900, St Agnes' Church, Grange, from 1906, and Christ Church, Yankalilla 1907–1910,[24] St Luke's, Whitmore Square, in 1911 and Kapunda 1911–1916, visiting England in 1914 for the sake of his health, which was deteriorating. He left Kapunda for a Locum tenens position in Tasmania, but his health suffered and in 1918 he left for Brisbane,[25] and received a locum (for Rev. Walter Scott) at St Thomas's Church,[26] Toowong,[b] where he died a year later, and where his funeral service was conducted by Bishop Henry Le Fanu.[28]
Family
Donald A. Kerr BA (1859–1919) married Emma Bevis (Beviss ?) Pope (died July 1939)[29] in London in late 1891. Emma was a sister of solicitors William (1846 – 27 August 1923) and Thomas Pope (died in Torquay 24 September 1938), and of Mary Pope, who married Henry Foote (died 1893) in 1885,[30] Edward Lay in 1895.[31] Mary Lay left a small fortune to the Kerr family in 1931.
They had one child:
- Donald Kerr, MM LLD (1893 – 30 January 1928) enrolled with the First AIF, served overseas as an ambulance driver and was awarded the Military Medal in 1917, citing "conspicuous services"[32] He was a prominent lawyer, author of several treatises:
- The Law of the Australian Constitution 1925
- The Principle of the Australian Land Titles (Torrens) System 1927
- The Law of the Australian Constitution 1928
- He married Marjorie Jane Johns (1894–1968) in 1918 and had four children:
- Donald Beviss Kerr (27 June 1919 – 15 December 1942) noted poet, killed in plane crash during WWII.
- Margaret Beviss Kerr (19 December 1920[33] – )
- Charles William Beviss Kerr (23 February 1922 – 1962)
- David Ian Beviss Kerr (28 April 1924[34] – 23 April 2005)[35] later physiology researcher and academic, Sydney University.
- He attempted suicide by opening the gas tap and slashing his wrists, but was still alive when admitted to hospital, where he died two days later.[36] He was due to present evidence to the Commonwealth Constitution Commission the following day,[37] having studied and written extensively on the subject. Other explanations for his last actions have been advanced.[38]