Lawrence Borthwick Kelly Jr. (5 November 1928 – 11 July 2018) was an Australian politician. He was the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

member for

Corrimal Corrimal is a northern suburb of the city of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. Corrimal's CBD is situated on the Princes Highway, and several streets adjacent to it. The main shopping centres are Lederer Corrimal and Corrimal Park Mall ne ...

in the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

from 1968 to 1988, and served as

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

from 1976 to 1988. Kelly was born in

Thirroul Thirroul () is a northern seaside suburb of the city of Wollongong, Australia. Situated between Austinmer and Bulli, it is approximately 13 kilometres north of Wollongong, and 73 km south of Sydney. It lies between the Pacific Ocean and ...

, the son of Laurie Kelly Sr., who was a member of the Legislative Assembly from 1947 to 1955. He was educated at Thirroul Primary School and

Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wate ...

High School, and after leaving school worked as an accountant. He joined the Labor Party in 1948. On 23 October 1954 he married Rhonda Ali, with whom he had two children and who preceded him in death. In 1968, Kelly was selected as the Labor candidate for the seat of

, largely a successor to his father's old seat of Bulli. Elected easily, he never had difficulty in winning re-election. He was appointed Speaker in 1976, serving until 1988, when his seat of Corrimal was abolished. Kelly challenged sitting

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Frank Arkell Francis Neville (Frank) Arkell (13 September 193526 June 1998) was an Australian politician. Arkell was a long-serving Lord Mayor of Wollongong and an independent member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing Wollongong. In 1 ...

for his seat of

, but was defeated. Kelly died on 11 July 2018 due to complications of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

that he had contracted earlier in the month.

References

1928 births 2018 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Speakers of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the Order of Australia Recipients of the Centenary Medal Australian people of Scottish descent Deaths from pneumonia in New South Wales {{Australia-Labor-NewSouthWales-MP-stub