Summary heading
Sir William McKell (CP 954)
Career within Commonwealth
William John McKell was born at Pambula (NSW) in
1891. His father died when he was ten, and the family moved to Sydney where McKell
attended the Bourke Street Public School in Surry Hills. He left school at
twelve and worked as a message boy until apprenticed as a boilermaker at the
age of sixteen. Soon active in industrial matters, he became Assistant
Secretary to the Boilermakers’ Union. He later studied law and was admitted to
the Bar in NSW in 1925.
In 1917, McKell was elected as a Labor member of the NSW
Legislative Assembly, representing Redfern and doubling the vote of his
predecessor, J S T McGowan (a former Premier). He remained in state politics
for the next 30 years. In this period of his career, McKell was Assistant
Minister for Justice in the Storey Government (1920-22), Minister for Justice
and Assistant Treasurer (1925-27), Minister for Local Government (1930-31), Minister
for Justice (1931-32) in successive Lang Governments, Leader of the Opposition
(1939-41) and, finally, Premier and Treasurer (1941-47). He was a strong
advocate for his state’s interests during World War II and his Premiership saw
the establishment of the State Housing Commission, the Sydney Turf Club,
University of New South Wales, state dockyards and Kosciusko National Park. In
early 1946, with the support of the Prime Minister (Ben Chifley), McKell
secured the appointment of an Australian (Lieutenant-General Sir John
Northcott) as Governor of NSW. The McKell and Chifley Governments were also
successful in the establishment of the Joint Coal Board to regulate the coal
industry.
McKell’s appointment as Governor-General of Australia was
announced in January 1947 and he was sworn in on 11 March that year. Admiralty
House had long been the official residence of the Governor-General in Sydney,
but McKell was the first to use it in that capacity when the formal title
passed to the Commonwealth in 1948. He also opened the 20th
Commonwealth Parliament in June 1951, its Jubilee year, and read the
proclamation for the accession of Queen Elizabeth II in February 1952. McKell
retired to his Goulbourn property in May 1953, although he was subsequently one
of a five-member Constitutional Commission to Malaya (1956-57).
Sir William McKell was appointed to the Privy Council (PC)
in 1948 and was knighted (GCMG) in 1951. He died in 1985.
Links to other Commonwealth Persons
Publications
End notes
Sources
Australian Encyclopaedia, Vol 5 (6th ed, 1996)
Kelly, Vince, A Man of the People: from boilermaker to
Governor-General (Alpha Books, 1971)
Who’s Who in Australia 1983