Born in Scotland, McKerrell moved to South Africa to work as a coal miner with his brother David, although he left around the onset of the Second Boer War.
[1] He returned to Scotland, settling in Kilmarnock, where he married in 1899,[2] and joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) around this time.
[6] In November 1910, he was adopted as a last-minute candidate for Liverpool Kirkdale at the December general election,[7] taking 41.6% of the vote, a small reduction for the party's performance earlier in the year.
[10] McKerrell was a supporter of British involvement in World War I, although he opposed conscription,[11] and in 1917 he resigned his union posts to become an official in the Ministry of Labour.
He appeared to regret this decision, and was lined up for a move to the Ministry's Scottish office, but his wife would not take him back.