McKEON, Thomas

Thomas McKeon was a student of Divinity and living at Vermont, Victoria, when he enlisted for the war on 23 October, 19015. Born at Enniscorthy in Ireland, his enlistment application identified both parents as dead, and no siblings. For his next of kin, he gave his wife, Stella Agnes McKeon, nee Allen. Stella was a registered nurse and living at Mrs. Holland's Nurses' Home at 340 Albert St., East Melbourne, and Thomas gave that as his Melbourne address.

When he died on 12 November, 1924, the Box Hill Reporter commented:

              Some have wondered why Rev. McKeon left Vermont. It was that, like St.Paul, he wanted to go  o     over the world, striving to benefit humanity. On the outbreak of war, the late vicar heard the call and had enlisted as a private. It was his self-sacrificing nature that ultimately resulted in his death.

Thomas McKeon was 25 years and 9 months old when he enlisted on 23 October, 1915 and married Stella some time early in 1916. On 25 October, 1915, he was a Private in training at Royal Park, Carlton, but was on 11 November, was moved over the Australian Medical Corps at Ascot Vale. He was there for only two weeks, moved on 15 November to the 10th Field Ambulance, where he stayed for four months. He would have been an imposing figure, 5' 11" in height, with dark brown hair, and grey eyes, and as one of his mentors said, a student who knew his bible thoroughly. 

By then, he had been ordained as a Church of England minister. On 30 November, 1916, he was overseas in France, ex Southampton and had been appointed as chaplain and moved from the 10th Field Ambulance unit to the 14th Battalion in the field for continuous service. While he is listed in the Nominal Rolls, as a Chaplain, there is no indication of when he left Australia, though his return date is registered.  

On 9 October, 1917, he was  back in England and attached to the 2nd Australian Auxiliary Hospital. Opened in August 1916, it was formerly the Marylebone School, in South Road, Southall. By 25 September, another school, the Beaconsville School for Girls, had also been commandeered to accomodate the huge numbers of wounded from the Western Front. Thomas McKeon must have seen dreadful sights when he was on duty.On 4 February 1918, he was in hospital himself, brought down by dyspepsia and diarrohea. This was the 1st Australian General Hospital at Rouen, but then re-located at Sutton Veny in 1918. Thomas McKeon was there from 4 February 1918 to 12 March 1918, probably transferred for duty after the A.G.H. was moved to England. On 19 November, he was back in France and fell ill with inflenza - perhaps the Spanish Flu - and was placed in the 2nd Red Cross Hospital at Rouen.

In November, 1918, the war being over,he was given leave and on 19 May, 1919, Thomas McKeon was returned to Australia on board the Port Napier and then struck off the army lists. He moved back to Vermont, where he became the first Vicar of St Luke's Anglican Church, serving from 1920-1923. The men of the Vermont Parish built a house in Francis St., Vermont, near the St Luke's. He and Stella now had two children, Arthur, born 12 March 1917, and Lorna, post-war and after Thomas McKeon's death, lived there for many years. A report in the Box Hill Reporter, a year after his death, read in part that he was

...beloved by all members of his church in the Vermont district and it was decided that the erection of a new hall would be a fitting tribute to his ministry.

Thomas McKeon died in 1924, with the cause identified as war injuries. His funeral was held at St. Agnes Church, Glenhuntly, and he was buried at Brighton Cemetery. Stella Agnes Allen McKeon died at Highett, Victoria, in 1958.