Feature Biography
Jim McClelland (1915–1999)
James Robert McClelland (1915–1999), politician, judge, and columnist, was born on 3 June 1915 in Melbourne, second of four children of Victorian-born parents Robert William McClelland, a painter with the Victorian Railways, and his wife Florence Ruby, née O’Connor. Florence raised their children in her Catholic faith. In 1925 Robert was assigned to work at Ballarat, where Jim attended St Patrick’s College. Young McClelland considered training for the priesthood, but his voracious reading...