SHREWSBURY VICAR-GENERAL
Pontifical Requiem Mass for the repose of the soul of the R.1. Rev. Mgr. Canon Joseph Kelly, parish priest of the church of St. Alban, Liscard, Wallasey, for 19 years and Vicar-General of the diocese of Shrewsbury since 1935, was celebrated at St. Alban's on Wednesday last by the Rt. Rev. Ambrose James Moriarty, Bishop of Shrewsbury, in the presence of a large and representative gathering of clergy, friends, and parishioners. Solemn Dirge was sting on Tuesday evening. The interment took place in Rake Lane cemetery.
Mgr. Kelly died on Easter Sunday, in his 67th year, at a West Kirby nursing home where he had been a patient for about a fortnight. He is survived by his brother, Mr. Charles Kelly, the celebrated pianist, well-known for his B.B.C. recitals.
Born in Macclesfield on Christmas Day, 1874, he was educated at Ushaw College where he taught as a minor professor for three years. He was ordained in 1902 and following a perked of parish work acted as secretary to Bishop Allen and Bishop Singleton. Throughout the Great War he served as a chaplain with the 80th Infantry Brigade in France, Salonika, and Southern Russia.
In 1922, Fr. Kelly, as he was then, was appointed rector of Se Alban's, Liscard, and in 1925 a Canon of the diocese of Shrewsbury.