WILLIAM FRANKLIN KERR.
 


	William Franklin Kerr, commissioner of th'e Saskatcheivan Red Cross
Society and a former newspaper man of Regina, was born in Goderich,
ontario, on the 25th of October, 1876, son of Dawson and Frances E.
(Hale) Kerr. His paternal grandfather, Dawson Kerr, was born in the
North of Ireland and came to Ontario as a young man, and there followed
his trade as a printer. He moved to Ottawa in the days when it was known
as Bytown and there started one of the earliest newspapers in the Ottawa
valley, remaining in the newspaper business for years.  Dawson Kerr,
the second, was born in Toronto, while his wife is a native of Goderich.
The father was a hardware merchant but had been living retired in Re-
gina for some time prior to his death on August 9, 1923, in his eighty-
second year. He had long been a consistent member of the Methodist
church, as is his wife, who survives him and still makes her home in Re-
gina. William F. Kerr is the second of their family of four children, one
of whom is deceased. William Franklin Kerr obtained hIs education in
the public schools of St. Thomas, Ontario, following which he secured his
first employment as delivery boy for the telegraph office of the Canadian
Pacific Railway. Later he worked in the branch telegraph office in the
House of Commons and was with the railroad for a total period of seven
years. After spending three and a half years in Winnipeg on the Free
Press he came to Regina on the 1st of February, 1902, as editor of the
Weekly Leader, a position he was to fill for nearly twenty years. In 1905
he changed the Leader from a weekly to a daily paper. Eventually Mr.
Kerr purchased the paper from Walter Scott, becoming president of the
newly organized company, in which capacity, together with that of editor,
he directed the policy of the Leader until he resigned on the 1st of August,
1920. During his career as a journalist Mr. Kerr had many of the inter-
esting experiences that are said to be the common lot of the members of
that profession  When the present king and queen of England visited
Canada in 1901 he represented the Winnipeg Free Press in the staff of
reporters that accompanied the royal pair in their progress to Vancouver
and back. In the last exciting months of the Great war Mr. Kerr was over-
seas in the interests of his journalistic work as the guest or the British
and French governments. It was his duty in connection with this work,
to visit the Allied and Associated troops at the front, where he saw the
troops under fire-scenes that were forbidden to all but the necessary
few in civilian roles.
	At the time that he sold his newspaper interests, Mr. Kerr accepted
the position of commissioner of the Canadian Red Cross in Saskatchewan,
which he holds at the present time. This work has been one of his chief
interests for some years, so it was with great pleasure that he entered
upon his new duties. He devotes his entire time to the administration of
the affairs of his society and finds that its manifold activities present an
interesting array of problems to be solved and difficulties to be adjusted.
For Mr. Kerr this is a labor of love, while the Red Cross Society is consid-
ered most fortunate in having the services of so able a man.
	On the 11th of October, 1904, Mr. Kerr was united in marriage to Miss
Sara W. Sharman, who ~as born at Stratford, Ontario, and educated in
Manitoba. They belong to the Westminster Presbyterian church and Mr.
Kerr is affiliated with the Canadian Order of Foresters.


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