Born on 13 May 1926 in Wibsey, near Bradford into a Methodist family, he attended Carlton Grammar School before serving in the Intelligence Corps, mainly in Malaya. After studying French at Liverpool University and the Sorbonne, he obtained first class Honours in 1952. He taught at Ashville College, Harrogate and from 1956 at King James's Grammar School, Knaresborough, where he became head of Modern Languages and also taught religious studies. He served as a local preacher from 1953 and in 1996 was runner-up in the Times 'Preacher of the Year' competition for a sermon preached in Southwark cathedral.

He published about 40, books, including French textbooks and translations and Yorkshire local history and dialects, on which he also broadcast and gave talks. He was a vice-president of the Yorkshire Dialect Society. He wrote local pageants, including one for the millennium in 2000 and two on John Wesley's visits to Knaresborough. He also had a gift for light verse and his collection entitled Kellett's Christmas, published in support of Save the Children and MRDF, became well known.

Having established that the first Royal Maundy had been performed in Knaresborough by King John in 1210, he was awarded the Yorkshire History Prize in 1988 and in 1996 was made Knaresborough's first Honorary Citizen and in 2001 a freeman of the town. He served on the town council and was twice mayor, in 1979 and 1984. He survived heart attacks in 1976 and 1999, but died of a third heart attack in June 2009.

Category: Person
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