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Edwin Kerby

Australian politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ5346577
Source-derived summary

Edwin Thomas John Kerby (12 April 1888 – 5 July 1971) was an Australian politician.

Family

The son of James Macklam Kerby (1861—1944), and Margaret Ann Kerby (1856—1941), née Brennan, Edwin Thomas John Kerby was born at Ballarat, Victoria on 12 April 1888.

He married Rosina May Prisk (1888—1980), later Mrs. Oliver Gladstone Longstaff, at Ballarat on 3 May 1911. He married Elizabeth Beatrice Simons Beauchamp (1898—1986) in 1945.

Early life

He attended Grenville College, Ballarat, before becoming a mining engineer and electrical contractor.

Military service

He served in World War I from 1914 to 1919. During his service he was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, and the Victory Medal.

Politician

In 1919, he was selected as the Nationalist candidate for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Ballaarat, and defeated sitting Labor MP Charles McGrath by one vote, the closest result ever recorded for the House of Representatives. McGrath successfully challenged Kerby's election in the courts, and a by-election was held in 1920 and won by McGrath.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Edwin Kerby” as australian politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Edwin, Kerby and Australian.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1888, 1971, 1861, 1944—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1885-04-12. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Edwin, Kerby and Australian providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Edwin Kerby”, the useful work is to connect “australian politician” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5346577. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1888, 1971, 1861 and 1944.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Edwin Kerby”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Edwin Kerby primary sources, Edwin Kerby archive and Edwin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Edwin Kerby”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Edwin Kerby” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.