Richard Keane
Eric Harrison | |
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Personal details | |
Born | Beechworth, Victoria, Australia | 14 February 1881
Died | 26 April 1946 Washington, D.C., United States | (aged 65)
Political party | Labor |
Spouses | Ruby Thorne
(m. 1909; died 1923)Millicent Dunn (m. 1940) |
Occupation | Railway clerk |
Richard Valentine Keane (14 February 1881 – 26 April 1946) was an Australian politician and trade unionist. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served as Minister for Trade and Customs from 1941 until his death in 1946. He was a member of both the House of Representatives (1929–1931) and the Senate (1938–1946). Prior to entering politics he worked as a clerk with the Victorian Railways and served as national secretary of the Australian Railways Union (1925–1929).
Early life
Keane was born on 14 February 1881 in
Keane was educated at
Union career
In 1918, Keane became an officeholder in the Victorian Railways Union. In 1925 he resigned from the public service to take up a paid position as state secretary and national secretary of the Australian Railways Union (ARU).[2] At the time the ARU was the largest union in Victoria, with over 20,000 members.[1] Keane supported industrial unionism and unsuccessfully advocated for the ARU to merge with the Australian Workers' Union (AWU). He was vice-president of the Commonwealth Council of Federated Unions and later served on the general arbitration committee of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).[2]
Political career
Keane was vice-president of the executive of the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party in 1928 and its president in 1930 and from 1937 to 1938. In 1925, he stood unsuccessfully for the Australian Senate and the Victorian Legislative Council. In the October 1929 election, he was elected as the member for Bendigo in the Australian House of Representatives, but lost it at the October 1931 election. He was narrowly defeated for Bendigo at the 1934 election, but was elected to the Senate at the 1937 election. He became leader of the government in the Senate in 1943.[1]
In October 1941 Keane was appointed
Keane died at a hospital in Washington, D.C., on 26 April 1946, aged 65. He had collapsed earlier in the day at the Australian embassy due to heart trouble, which was attributed to over-work. He had taken over the administration of the embassy while awaiting the arrival of the new ambassador, Norman Makin.[5]
Personal life
In 1909, Keane married Ruby Thorne, a milliner, with whom he had two daughters and a son. He was widowed in 1923 and remarried in 1940 to Millicent Dunn, a typist, with whom he had another daughter.[2]
Keane stood 6 feet (180 cm) tall and reportedly weighed 127 kilograms (280 lb).[1]
Notes
- ^ ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Clarke, Patricia (2004). "Keane, Richard Valentine (1881–1946)". The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate. Vol. 2. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
- ^ "Senator's Visit: Link With Civil War?". Sunday Times. Perth. 26 November 1944. Retrieved 22 December 2022 – via Trove.
- ^ "Senator Keane, Not Churchill". The Sun. Sydney. 13 March 1946. Retrieved 22 December 2022 – via Trove.
- ^ "Sudden death of Senator Keane in Washington". The Canberra Times. 29 April 1946. Retrieved 22 December 2022 – via Trove.