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Town Hall, 333 Bay Street, Port Melbourne
Town Hall, 333 Bay Street, Port Melbourne

McKeating, Richard (5133)

Place of Birth: Belfast, Ireland

Age: 39 years 10 months

Enlistment Details: Thursday, 3 February 1916 – Melbourne, VIC

Service Number: 5133            view online service record

Address:
Rising Sun Hotel
cnr Bay and Boundary Streets
Port Melbourne, VIC

Next of Kin:
E Smith (friend)
Rising Sun Hotel
cnr Bay and Boundary Streets
Port Melbourne, VIC

Embarkation Details:
Date: Saturday, 1 April 1916
Ship: HMAT Suffolk A23
Port: Melbourne, VIC
Unit: 6th Infantry Battalion – 16th Reinforcements

Fate:
DOW: Friday, 5 October 1917
Place: No 3 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station, Belgium


 

1917 ‘PORT CASUALTIES.’, Port Melbourne Standard (Vic. : 1914 – 1920), 1 December, p. 2. , viewed 26 Aug 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article88368893

 

1918 ‘ELECTRIC SPARKS’, Port Melbourne Standard (Vic. : 1914 – 1920), 9 November, p. 3. , viewed 08 Nov 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article88369594


Private, 6 Infantry, died of wounds 5 October 1917, Belgium, aged 42, commemorated Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium.

Friend: Edward SMITH (parents deceased), born Belfast, Ireland. McKeating was a 40 year-old Irish-born labourer who gave a friend, Edward Smith at the Rising Sun Hotel, Port Melbourne as next of kin. McKeating died of gunshot wounds to the left thigh in the 3rd Casualty Clearing Station, in Belgium. No circular was returned, but a letter from a friend in Auburn suggested he arrived after spending several years in America and had no relatives and few friends in Australia, but was believed to have had three sisters in England with whom he had little contact.

Additional research by Brian Membrey

1 Comments

  • Brian Membrey
    Posted February 17, 2017 6.34 pm 0Likes

    “We went over the top on morning of 4th October and gained our objective, and were relieved and came back to Westhoek Ridge to be in reserve, and it was whilst we were in reserve that McKeating got hit; he was badly wounded in the hip and stomach and hip by a shell – I was in a dugout close by and I came out and saw him, but he had died on the stretcher and was quite dead when I saw him. I understand he was buried in a cemetery just outside Ypres. He had a strong Yankee accent and I should say WAS a Yank. He was an educated man and had done a great deal of sailing and held a Master’s Certificate – medium build, very fair hair and freckled face” (Liet. D.W. McLachlan, D Coy., 6th Battn)

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