Alison Kerr, Lady Kerr

Alison, Lady Kerr (29 July 1915 – 9 September 1974) was the first wife of Sir John Kerr, Governor-General of Australia 1974-77. She was a marriage guidance counsellor and administrator prior to his appointment. She died soon into Kerr's term at Yarralumla, and he remarried a few months later.

Alison Worstead was born in 1915 in Molong, New South Wales. She was known as "Peggy" to her family and friends. She had a brother named Victor, who predeceased her, as did her parents, Frederick Oscar (formerly Wehrstedt) and Florence Ophelia (nee Jones).

She was educated at Domremy Convent, Five Dock, Sydney and gained a Diploma of Social Studies at the University of Sydney. A fellow student there was Margaret Dovey, who became a close lifelong friend and later married Gough Whitlam.

Peggy Worstead married John Kerr on 4 November 1938, in St James' Church, King St, Sydney, the same year in which he was admitted to the New South Wales Bar. In 1939 the first of their three children, Gabrielle, was born. During World War II she worked with the Family Welfare Bureau and the Australian Imperial Forces Women's Association, and later Secretary of the Hospital Almoners' Institute. In 1945 her daughter Kristin was born, and in 1949 her son Philip.

In 1954 she was invited to become a marriage guidance counsellor, by the Rev W. G. Coughlan, the founder and first director of the Marriage Guidance Council of New South Wales. She did this work for ten years, later becoming a member of the Council's Executive Committee (1964-65; her husband was President of the Marriage Guidance Council 1962-63).

In 1965 she suffered a stroke occasioned by an upper arachnoid haemmorhage, which paralysed her left side and left her with a speech disability. However, she rose above these challenges to continue her work as a marriage guidance counsellor and to serve on Lifeline's Adoption Committee. When her husband became Chief Justice and Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales, she often assumed the role of spouse of the acting Governor.

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