St Joseph's Society
Father Kelly died at his home in Mansfield on 18th August 1979. Ill health had forced his retirement from active work in 1969. He was born in Woolton, Liverpool, on 4th December 1903 and received his early education at St Mary's, Woolton, before entering St Edward's and then Upholland College. He studied at the Seminaries in Toulouse and Amiens before ordination at St John's, Kirkdale on 29th April 1928. He served in St Patrick's and St John's, Liverpool and St Cuthbert's, Wigan, before being appointed to the Apostleship of the Sea in 1938. In the early part of the war he was captured at sea and spent some time on board a German prison ship before being rescued and landed in Australia. He held appointments in Australia until the end of the war, amongst which was a period in the Cathedral at Wagga-Wagga. He returned to Liverpool at the end of the war and in 1946 became Parish Priest at St Gerard's, where he stayed until becoming Parish Priest of St Swithin's in 1957, transferring to St William of York, Crosby in 1964 and then to Our Lady's, Bryn in 1967, where he remained until his retirement. May he rest in peace.