Reverend Frederic Festus Kelly

Born in Bloomsbury in 1838, Frederic Festus Kelly was the elder son of the Post Office official and founder of Kelly’s famous Directory, Frederic Festus Kelly (died 1883).

Educated at Eton and at Trinity College Cambridge, he was ordained a deacon in 1861 and became a priest the following year. He served as Curate in a number of different locations, latterly in Kensington and then Paddington, before becoming the Vicar of Camberwell in 1880, a post he filled until 1915.

On 28 April 1873 he married Blanche Bradford, daughter of Robert Bradford, at St Michael and All Angels, Paddington. Their children included the artist Sir Gerald Festus Kelly and Rose Edith Kelly, who married Aleister Crowley in 1903.

Reverend Frederic Festus Kelly resided in his later years at 65, Gloucester Place, London. He died there on 4 August 1918, aged 80.

Photographed in 1862 by Camille Silvy of London. Reverend Frederic Festus Kelly