John H Kelly was born in Parkville, Melbourne, in 1898 the fourth son of parents who had come from Galway, Ireland. He was educated at the local North Melbourne State School where he won a scholarship to Scotch College Melbourne. He was dux of his class at Scotch College the following year. He attended Melbourne University, graduating in his final year of medicine with first-class honours in all subjects and topping the list of his contemporaries. He was a junior and senior resident medical officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and gained his MD Melbourne in 1923.

He then travelled to England as a ship’s medical officer and obtained the MRCP in 1924. After study in England and in Vienna, and again travelling as a ship’s surgeon, he returned via the USA where he studied with leading dermatologists. He became assistant dermatologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital on his return, and in 1928 he became honorary dermatologist, a post he held for twenty years. He was also honorary dermatologist to the Royal Children’s Hospital from 1926 to 1951. He was a foundation Fellow of The Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

In the late 1930s he developed aggressive basal cell carcinoma of the face. Operative treatment in 1938 was followed by recurrence and in 1940 he travelled to America for a prolonged series of operations extending over twelve months from Dr J Barrett Brown the eminent plastic surgeon in St Louis, Missouri. He returned to Australia as liaison officer on the first troopship bringing American soldiers to Australia in World War II. Many friendships were made on the voyage. During the war years he served as consultant dermatologist to the Army with much of his time spent at the then Heidelberg Military Hospital. Further recurrence of malignancy was operated upon on a number of occasions by Sir Benjamin Rank, with removal of much of his face so that he lived behind a mask of adhesive plaster and gauze for many years.

He was a man of high intellect with interests which extended throughout the broad fields of the humanities. His facility in the English language, together with his keen understanding of human nature, enabled him to paint an effortless word picture of the disease and patient in such a way as to leave an indelible memory. He was active in the foundation of the Dermatological Association of Australia and was a member of the first council and the first treasurer of the Association.

He showed great fortitude and courage in submitting to numerous operations and grafts and in facing the world undaunted without nose or face behind a cover of dressings and adhesive plaster. He was never heard to complain. Though vision remained in only one eye he continued to enjoy playing golf. In 1951 he suffered a stroke which forced his retirement from practice until his death in 1957. His son Robert, FRACP and his grandson John, FACD both became dermatologists.