Anne Kerr, Lady Kerr

Anne Kerr, Lady Kerr (1914 – 16 September 1997) was the second wife of Sir John Kerr, Governor-General of Australia 1974-77. They were married during his term of office, six months after his first wife died.

Anne Dorothy Taggart was born in 1914. She was known as Nancy to her friends. She was an honours graduate from the University of Sydney. In 1935 she was awarded a French Government travelling scholarship and gained her Master of Arts from the Sorbonne, Paris. She appeared as an official French-English interpreter at more than 30 international conferences over ten years, including Colombo Plan meetings. On one occasion she interpreted for Jawaharlal Nehru at a United Nations human rights seminar in New Delhi. She was also fluent in German.

In 1941 she married Hugh Walker Robson QC, a barrister, who was appointed to the bench in 1970. He was Judge of the New South Wales District Court and Chairman of the Court of Quarter Sessions. They had a son and a daughter. At one time he had made a bid for Liberal Party preselection for the federal seat of Warringah.

After the end of World War II, she acted as an interpreter for the Department of External Affairs for visiting French delegations.

In 1966 she was the first Australian to become a member of the International Association of Conference Interpreters.

Her marriage to Robson was dissolved in early 1975. It was reported that "strings had been pulled" to ensure her quick divorce from Robson and an avoidance of publicity. On 29 April 1975, in the Scots Kirk, Mosman, she married the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, becoming the second Lady Kerr; Sir John was a widower, his first wife Alison Kerr, Lady Kerr having died aged 59 on 9 September 1974, two months after he took up the post at Yarralumla.

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