Painter and muralist, born in Rochdale, Lancashire. He was educated at De la Salle College, Salford, 1951–8, and graduated from department of fine art at Durham University, 1958–62, with honours, after which he was self-employed as an artist. In 1972 Kershaw made his home at Littleborough, in the Pennines, where a large studio enabled him to create on a panoramic scale. From the age of 13 he painted the Lancashire landscape and he was to be a pioneer of industrial murals in Britain. From 1977–9 he was awarded a major grant, jointly financed by the Gulbenkian Foundation and North West Arts, to establish external mural painting in the Lancashire area. His mural at Trafford Park, Manchester, was claimed to be the world’s largest industrial painting of its type and it took him four years to finish.