Alick Dudley Kay (3 October 1884 – 4 February 1961) was an Australian politician and

Domain Domain may refer to: Mathematics *Domain of a function, the set of input values for which the (total) function is defined **Domain of definition of a partial function **Natural domain of a partial function **Domain of holomorphy of a function * Do ...

orator. He is described by the

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

as a "harmless ratbag".

Early life and education

Kay was born in the

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

suburb of Petersham, New South Wales and educated at Petersham and

Stanmore Stanmore is part of the London Borough of Harrow in London. It is centred northwest of Charing Cross, lies on the outskirts of the London urban area and includes Stanmore Hill, one of the highest points of London, at high. The district, which ...

public schools. Alick became a clerk with New South Wales Government Railways and joined the Australian Army in 1915.

Career

Kay ran unsuccessfully for the federal seat of South Sydney for the Nationalist Party in 1917. In 1918 he left the Nationalists and started appearing regularly as an anti-Communist speaker at Sydney Domain. He also travelled regularly to Melbourne to orate next to the Yarra. In 1925, he won one of the five seats of North Shore under proportional representation in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as an independent. In parliament, he regularly voted with Labor to the horror of his former supporters. Under the electoral system, the Labor Party automatically won his position if he resigned, so Jack Lang offered him a position on the Metropolitan Meat Board in 1926 as a consumers' representative. The Thomas Bavin government passed legislation in 1927 to remove him from the board. After Lang's return to power in 1930, he was reappointed to the board, but was sacked again by the Bertram Stevens government.

Personal life

In 1913, Kay married Mary Elizabeth Clasby, a 52-year-old widow with five children (one of her sons,

John Clasby John Joseph Clasby (1891 – 15 January 1932) was an Australian politician. Clasby was born in Warragul, Victoria. He served in World War I from 1914 with the Light Horse and later with the Artillery in Egypt and in France, but returned to ...

, was briefly a federal MP). In 1933, Kay travelled to England. His wife had died and he married Dorothy Edith Gamson at

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

in June 1943. He later claimed to have worked for the Ministry of Information during World War II. In 1951, he returned to Sydney, and resumed speaking at the Domain on Sundays. He died in the Sydney suburb of Mosman, survived by his wife.

Notes

Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 1884 births 1961 deaths 20th-century Australian politicians Independent members of the Parliament of New South Wales {{Australia-Independent-politician-stub