Henry Arthur Kellow

Henry Arthur Kellow (8 July 1881 – 6 September 1935) was a Scottish-born Australian literary critic, author and teacher.

Early life Kellow was born at St Andrews in Fife on the east coast of Scotland. The local Rockhampton press approved of Kellow's appointment and published glowing testimonials to illustrate its point.

Kellow and his wife were officially welcomed to the school on 15 July 1912 at the annual reunion of past Rockhampton Grammar School students.

During his tenure, Kellow developed considerable influence. It was Kellow who persuaded the trustees of the school in 1913 to allow Jack Fryer another year of study after he was unsuccessful in gaining a university scholarship. Fryer was eventually won the scholarship and was accepted into the University of Queensland. Kellow's works had been earlier published through Harrap's publishing house, although the two had met while Kellow was teaching at Allen Glen's School in Glasgow.

Kellow's interactions with other dignitaries are recalled in Lorna McDonald's book about his life The Moving Mind, including Shakespearean actor Allan Wilkie, Queensland Governor Matthew Nathan, Governor-Generals Lord Munro Ferguson and Lord Forster, Japanese consul Iemasa Tokugawa, cricketer Don Bradman, swimmer Noel Ryan and local political figure Frank Forde. It was described by the secretary of the English Association as the best English text book of its kind they had ever seen.

Burns and his Poetry was quickly followed by Kellow's anthology A Treasury of Scottish Verse published in 1912, which was a collection of poems from the 14th to the 19th centuries which Kellow analysed. The preface to A Treasury of Scottish Verse was written in the Bay of Biscay while Kellow and his wife were en route to Australia.

Shooting On 30 August 1919, Kellow was seriously injured when he was shot in a random shooting while he, his wife and two children were en route to Yeppoon in their Overland motorcar.

James Arthur Thompson and Eugine Berserker Onions were charged with discharging a loaded firearm with the intent to kill.

Somewhat unusually, the hearing at the Rockhampton Police Court on 8 October 1919 adjourned to the Hillcrest Hospital where Kellow was a patient recovering from his injuries so he could testify. After adjourning back to the court house, the police magistrate committed Thompson and Onions to stand trial the following month.

Thompson and Onions were both found guilty by a jury of grievous bodily harm and were both sentenced to seven years imprisonment with hard labour.

News of the shooting was widely reported in the Australian press.

Death Kellow died from pneumonia on 6 September 1935.

Kellow's funeral consisted of a church service at St Andrew's Presbyterian Church and a graveside service at the North Rockhampton Cemetery.

Prior to the graveside service, a long procession consisting of past and present students of the Rockhampton Grammar School marched from the school to the Fitzroy Bridge following Kellow's coffin before they were transported to the cemetery where they again made a formation to march to Kellow's grave.

Apart from being headmaster of the Rockhampton Grammar School for 23 years, Kellow was also actively involved in the Rockhampton community and as such his death prompted a number of tributes from various local community organisations, sporting groups and the local press.

Family After his death, Kellow's widow Mary Hope Kellow moved to Sydney with her daughter Mary. After living at Darlinghurst, Mary bought a house in Eastwood in 1950. She died in 1972. After her cremation, her ashes were brought back to Rockhampton where they were interred in her husband's grave at the North Rockhampton Cemetery.

Kellow's grandchildren Roslyn McGovern (née Kellow) and John Kellow were both present at the re-launch of their grandfather's biography The Moving Mind in Rockhampton in 2016.

Legacy In 1931, Kellow was made a Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland for his services to education.

One of the four sports houses at the Rockhampton Grammar School is named Kellow.

Kellow Street and Little Kellow Street on The Range at the rear of the Rockhampton Grammar School are named after Kellow.

In 1981, historian Lorna McDonald published a biography of Kellow, which she re-launched at the Rockhampton Grammar School in 2016 at the age of 100. At the original book launch on 24 July 1981, the executive director of the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies at James Cook University, Professor Harry Heseltine presented a Kellow monograph to the trustees of the Rockhampton Grammar School.