MR. THEO KELLY RESIGNS
February 28, 1951.
The Liverpool Echo
Everton Shock
Ill-Health Severs 21 Years’ Good Staff Work at Goodison
Ranger’s Notes
Mr. Theo Kelly, Everton’s secretary for the past 15 years, who has just returned to Liverpool after three months in a Manchester hospital, has intimated to the club his desire to relinquish his position on the grounds of ill-health. His resignation has been accepted.
Mr. Kelly that joined the Everton staff in 1929 in charge of the “A” team and showed such enterprise and ability that five years later he was appointed assistant secretary. During the illness of the late Mr. Tom McIntosh he took charge of all the office affairs in very efficient manner, and to February 1936, following the death of Mr. McIntosh, he was appointed secretary.
He continued in this role until March, 1946 when he took on the dual task of secretary manager. The double duty took considerable toll of his strength for he was a man who never spared himself.
On top of that, he had the further anxiety that the side was not doing well in a playing sense due to inroads caused by the war and the fact that many of the pre-war players were getting on in years. Just over two years ago, with the appointment of Mr. Cliff Britton as manager, Mr. Kelly again confined himself to secretarial duties alone.

These he has always discharged in a very competent and thorough manner, though during the past year or so he has been handicapped by ill-health. He will be missed by many regular Evertonians, and also by the players to whom he was always approachable and considerable. This marks the second major resignation in the city’s football government since the New Year and closely follows the departure, also through ill-health, of Mr. George Kay from the managerial chair at Anfield.