Tom Kerr (politician)

Tom Kerr
T.C. Kerr photographed in The Queenslander Pictorial supplement to The Queenslander, 1917
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
for Oxley
In office
17 April 1943 – 29 April 1950
Preceded byThomas Nimmo
Succeeded bySeat abolished
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
for Sherwood
In office
29 April 1950 – 19 May 1956
Preceded byNew seat
Succeeded byJohn Herbert
Personal details
Born
Thomas Caldwell Kerr

(1887-08-15)15 August 1887
Stanthorpe, Queensland, Australia
Died25 June 1956(1956-06-25) (aged 68)
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Political partyLiberal Party
Other political
affiliations
UAP, QPP
SpouseLillian Berry (m.1919 d.1954)
OccupationAccountant

Thomas Caldwell Kerr (15 August 1887 – 25 June 1956) was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.[1]

Biography[edit]

Kerr was born at Stanthorpe, Queensland, the son of John Kerr and his wife Mary (née Caldwell). He was educated at Sherwood State School and from 1905 to 1915 was a pearl sheller in the Dutch East Indies and Thursday Island. Later on he was a public accountant and auditor with Wright, Kerr and Co. in Brisbane.[1]

He served in the First Australian Imperial Force in World War I, being based with the 31st Infantry Battalion.[1]

On 8 November 1919 he married Lillian Violet Berry [1] (died 1954)[2] in Brisbane and together had two sons and one daughter. One of their sons died in World War II while serving as a Spitfire Pilot in France. Kerr died in June 1956.[1] He was cremated at Mt Thompson Crematorium and his ashes are in the columbarium wall at St Matthew's Anglican Church, Sherwood.[3]

Public life[edit]

Kerr, a member of the UAP, and later the QPP and the Liberal Party, won the seat of Oxley in the Queensland Legislative Assembly in the 1943 by-election to replace Thomas Nimmo who had died in February of that year. He was to represent the seat until it was abolished before the 1950 state election.[1]

He then moved to the new seat of Sherwood, holding it for six years until he retired from politics in 1956.[1] He collapsed and died a month later in his Queen Street office.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Former Members". Parliament of Queensland. 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  2. ^ Family history researchQueensland Government births, deaths, marriages, and divorces. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  3. ^ Thomas Caldwell KERR 25-6-1956 — Chapel Hill Photos. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
Parliament of Queensland
Preceded by Member for Oxley
1943–1950
Abolished
New seat Member for Sherwood
1950–1956
Succeeded by