Francis Baird McKelvey, also known as Frank McKelvey, Northern Irish painter, is born at 31 Woodvale Road, Belfast, on June 3, 1895.

McKelvey is second among six children and second of three sons of William McKelvey, painter and decorator, originally from Roseville, Craigavad, County Down, and his wife Mary, daughter of Frank Baird, farmer, from Ballywee, County Antrim. He is baptised at Saint Matthew’s Parish Church.

McKelvey attends Mayo Street national school in Belfast. When he is sixteen he became a lithographer apprentice to the firm David Allen & Sons. They produce postcards, posters and notices. He enrolls in the Belfast School of Art part-time by attending evening classes until he leaves his employment in 1911 to study full-time. Alfred Rawlings Baker, his art master, has great influence on him during his time at art college. He receives numerous awards for his artwork including the Sir Charles Brett Prize, the Fitzpatrick Prize, and the Taylor Art Competition.

McKelvey returns to David Allen & Sons in 1917 for a short period of time before he begins to focus on painting and opens his own studio in 1920. The studio is located in Rea’s Building, Royal Avenue, Belfast.

By 1918 McKelvey’s work is exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) and in 1921 he is elected a member of the Belfast Art Society. He is appointed an associate of the RHA in 1923, being granted full membership in 1930. During his career he is considered on a par with Paul Henry and James Humbert Craig, two of the most successful Irish landscape painters of the time. He is elected as one of the first academicians of the Ulster Academy of Arts when it is founded in 1930. He dies in Belfast on June 30, 1974.