Background
He was born in Hanover Parish, Maryland, and died in Jamaica.
He was born in Hanover Parish, Maryland, and died in Jamaica.
In 2001 he became president of the British Judo Association. In 2010 he was awarded the grade 10th Dan by the International Judo Federation (IJF) for international services to judo. He is currently the only living IJF jūdan.
He is the second Briton after Charles Palmer to have gained this rank in Judo. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours. He also received the , Gold Rays with Rosette, in January 2011 after being named in Emperor Akihito's November 2010 honours list, due to his ongoing contribution to judo and to relations between the UK and judo's country of origin, Japan.
Masataka Tarahara, Japan’s Consul-General in Scotland, presented him in Edinburgh with Japan’s equivalent of a CBE. He has authored the books Judo: basic training manual for beginners (W Foulsham, 1964), Judo as part of the 'Flying Start' series (Hodder Wayland, 1991) and, with his coaching-charge twice Olympic gold-medallist Peter Seisenbacher, Modern Judo: Techniques of East and West (Crowood Press, 1991).
He competed for the British West Indies at the 1960 Summer Olympics held in Rome, Italy where he won the bronze medal in the 800 metres. He then teamed up with Keith Gardner, Malcolm Spence and James Wedderburn to win the bronze medal in the 4 x 400 metres. In 1962, he became the first Jamaican athlete to have the national flag flown in recognition of winning a gold when he won double gold in the 400m and 800m at the Central American and Caribbean Games held at Kingston's National Stadium.
Kerr also competed at three Commonwealth Games winning a total of five medals. At the 1958 Cardiff Games he won bronze in the 4 × 440 yards relay. He won gold medals in the 440 yards and in the 4 × 440 yards relay and silver in the 880 yards at the 1962 Games in Perth, Australia.
In 2002 he was named one of the inaugural members of the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.
