William John McKell was born on the 26th September 1891 in Pambula, NSW, and educated Bourke St Public School in Sydney. He took up boilermaking as a trade, from which his nickname "Boilermaker Bill" derives, and served as the State Secretary of the Boilermakers' Union from 1915.
He was elected to the NSW Parliament as Member for Redfern in 1917, and while serving as a Member of Parliament McKell studied Law at the University of Sydney. He married Mary Pye in 1920, and he became a barrister in 1925.
While he acted as a NSW Minister between 1925 and 1932, during the tumultuous years of the Depression, and during the Labor split precipitated by the Premier Jack Lang, McKell acted as a leader of the anti-Lang forces in the NSW Parliamentary Labor Party. The long period Labor spent in Opposition in the 1930s was formative both for McKell and the Party, and when Labor won back Government in 1941, it was on the strength of country seats where McKell and others had worked to reestablish and strengthen the Labor presence.
Apart from major achievements in the conservation area, social and industrial changes were the most important aspects of the McKell Government. Among these changes were the establishment of the office of the Public Defender to represent under-privileged people in courts and increased pension payments for widows. Industrial legislation was enacted including the Annual Holidays Act, which guaranteed all employees the right to 2 weeks holiday per year with full pay. In the health area, the McKell Government made significant amendments to the Pure Food Act and the Public Health Act, embarked on statewide health education campaigns, established Baby Health Centres and relaunched the Government Insurance Office which had been wound back by the Conservative Government. He also set up the Housing Commission and was responsible for establishing the 1.3 million acre Kosciuszko National Park.
In 1947, having announced his intention to retire as Premier and from NSW politics, the Prime Minister Ben Chifley recommended that McKell be appointed Governor-General. He was a controversial choice as both a Laborite and a working-class Australian, in an era when it was thought inappropriate that either be the then King's representative. In the event, however, McKell's personal and class deficiencies did not prevent him from properly carrying out his vice-regal duties. The Liberal Prime Minister Menzies asked him, for instance, to allow a double-dissolution election in 1951, to which he assented, despite Federal Labor's opposition.
In 1951, King George VI appointed McKell to the Order of St Michael and St George, again controversially, as Laborites at the time were not supposed to receive knighthoods, and Labor official policy opposed the honour system. Sir William McKell retired as Governor-General in 1953, and died in 1985.
The McKell Award is the NSW Labor Party's annual award to thank members who have excelled in their service to the party and the community.