Alick Kay

Who was Alick Kay?

Alick Dudley Kay was an Australian politician and Domain orator. He is described by the Australian Dictionary of Biography as a "harmless ratbag".

Kay was born in the Sydney suburb of Petersham, New South Wales and educated at Petersham and Stanmore public schools. He worked in a wholesale warehouse and in 1913 married Mary Elizabeth Clasby, a 52-year-old widow with five children. He was given a state funeral. Alick became a clerk with New South Wales Government Railways and joined the army in 1915.

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.