This strand started when Byron Deveson uncovered two interesting Kean(e) men mentioned in 1930s South Australian Police Gazettes. I followed this up with a blog post on Thomas Joseph Kean, born 10th April 1898 in Northgate, Victoria, who I suspected was one of the two. Since then, I have found out more about his family, most recently with help from the nice people at GenealogySA.
Eileen Jessie Kean
KEAN, Eileen Jessie. – On August 13 [1976], Eileen Jessie Kean, beloved wife of the late Thomas Joseph, loving mother of Pat Cottle, Marj Spooner and the late Maly Pill, grandmother of 15 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
KEAN. – THE FRIENDS of the late Mrs. EILEEN JESSIE KEAN, are advised that her Funeral will leave our private parlor, 193 Unley road, Unley, THIS DAY (Saturday), at 9.45 a.m., for the W. A. Norman Memorial Chapel, Centennial Park Crematorium. Car Park adjoins parlor.
This leads us quickly to…
Maly Josepha Pill (nee Kean)
We were looking for a May, but we now know her first name was actually Maly (presumably pronounced ‘May-Lee’). This leads us to her examination results (as “Maly J. Kean”) published 20th Dec 1937 in the Adelaide News – “Maly J. Kean. Bt. Eg, HA. AL. M. OD;“
According to this slice-of-life Melbourne Weekly Times article of 17th Jan 1945, Maly Kean spent at least part of the war working for the WAAAF at the “RAAF Flying Boat Repair Depot at Lake Boga. Here, right in the Mallee country, great flying-boats from combat areas circle round and land on the small, saucer-shaped lake for repairs and overhaul.” Having said that, her part in the great drama was fairly modest: “two attractive dental orderlies, Cpl. Maly Kean of Adelaide, and A.C.W. “Jacky” Mountier, of Sydney, who help to lessen the terrors of those called up for dental attention“.
We move swiftly on to the Melbourne Herald of 6th December 1947:
PILL-KEAN
THE marriage of Maly Josepha Kean, of South Yarra, to William Henry Pill, of Elwood, will be celebrated this afternoon at St. Joseph’s Church, South Yarra.
The bride, who is the youngest daughter of Mr and Mrs T. J. Kean, of Glenelg, SA, will be attended by Mrs Marjory Roberts and given away by Mr Geoffrey Taylor.
She will wear a classical gown of white satin and a tulle veil caught to the head with orange blossom.
The bridegroom is the only son of the late Mr and Mrs Norman Pill. Mr Daryl Berry will be his best man.
Nicely, there’s a picture of their wedding day in the Melbourne Argus of 8th December 1947 (“WEDDINGS CELEBRATED IN SUBURBAN CHURCHES”) – “MR W. PILL and bride at St Joseph’s, South Yarra. Bride was Miss M. Kean.“:
It also seems certain that this is Maly Pill (nee Kean)’s gravestone, [Anzac 2] 467 POR.2 at Mount Gravatt Cemetery in Brisbane City:
She died on 1st May 1976, just a few months before her mother’s passing.
Ellen McPhee
Maly Kean also leads us to her grandmother’s death notice in the Melbourne Age, 25th Oct 1943 (though the OCR was quite poor before I corrected it):
McPHEE. — On October 22, at 35 Charles-street, St. Kilda, Ellen McPhee, relict of the late James (late of Wandiligong), loving mother of Eileen, Jean and James, loved nana of Patricia, Marjory and Maly Kean, Eileen and Martin Murphy, James and Annett McPhee, great-grandmother of Phillipa Spooner and loved sister of Em, aged 78 years. R.I.P.
Marj Spooner (nee Kean)
The GenealogySA people also found me the (profoundly heartfelt) series of death notices for Marj Spooner from the Adelaide Advertiser of 8th Oct 2009 (she died on 5th Oct 2009). I’ll include only two here:
Loving mother of Phil, Mark, John, Helen, Julie, Janet, Greg and Mary.
Dearly loved mother-in-law-of Mail, Maureen, Albert, Graham, Greg, Judy and Tom.
Cherished grandmother of 17 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
A beautiful woman who will be forever in our hearts and will never be forgotten.
In memory of a brilliant woman whose extraordinary intellect, sparkling wit and endless generosity was equally matched by the incredible sacrifices that she made for her family.
Bless you, and thank you for opening up the world for all of us.
In loving memory, Mary and Tom.
Marj Spooner was buried at Centennial Park Cemetery, Catholic “F” Section.
Kean Family Tree, Second Attempt
Thomas Joseph Kean, born 10th April 1898 (ref 13241/1898), Northgate, Victoria, died 1968 in Adelaide (53A/5511) (Parents: Thomas Francis Kean and [MaryAnn?] Deely)
–married:
Eileen Jessie McPhee, born 10th April 1896 in Wandiligong (Parents: James McPhee, and Eileen McPhee, died 22nd October 1943, St Kilda), died 13th August 1976, (Unley?).
–and had three daughters:
#1 Patricia Jean Kean, born 1919, died 2004.
She married Victor McDonnell (‘Vic’) Cottle, born 3rd July 1913 in Crystal Brook SA (son of George Henry Victor COTTLE and Lucieton Robe WHITINGTON).
They had (at least) two daughters, born 8th February 1944 and 20th October 1945.
#2 Marjorie Agnes (‘Marj’) Kean, born 1921, died 5th October 2009.
She married Alfred Raymond (‘Rip’) Spooner, born 3rd November 1913 in Birmingham, England; died 11th April 1979.
– Their children were Phillipa (Phil) born 18th February 1943, Mark Alfred born 30th June 1945, John born 17th March 1948, then Helen, Julie, Janet, Greg and Mary.
#3 Maly Josepha (‘May’) Kean, born 20th May 1922, died 1st May 1976 in Brisbane.
She married William Henry Pill of Elwood (son of Mr and Mrs Norman Pill) on 6th December 1947 in South Yarra.
Thomas Joseph Kean, died 1968.
Though it was (briefly) intriguing to find out that he and his family were living in Glenelg from at least 1945 to December 1947, this Thomas Joseph Kean was in fact the same Thomas Joseph Kean who died on 25th July 1968 in Coromandel Valley, and who was buried in Centennial Park. This information is, again, thanks to the GenealogySA database: though there are no newspaper death notices for him, there is a death record 53A/5511 on file for him in Adelaide, with Eileen Jessie Kean marked as his wife.
OK, so he clearly wasn’t the Somerton Man. But might he have been the same shady nitkeeper before the war we have been looking for? Was he the same Thomas Joseph Kean who retired as Clerk-in-Charge at Customs and Excise in November 1961? Or might he even have been both, i.e. a pre-war poacher turned post-war gamekeeper?
Nicely wrapped up.
Just tidying up a loose end or two just for the record. Maly is an unusual name with Czech origins apparently and it is noted that her grave plaque gives her age as 53 (20 days short of 54) and not her correct age of 52 as the math shows. Interesting that she served at Lake Boga RAAF base during the war, which has come up before (misca/bs/js) and that her future husband Bill Pill of Elwood (St. Kilda), was a career airforce officer who served through WW2, also later in the Korea conflict and beyond…And just to reiterate that Maly’s father Thomas Joseph Kean was cremated in 1968 at Centenial Park, not buried as has been incorrectly reported.
In case anyone is perhaps thinking about an evil twin scenario 🙂 , Thomas Joseph Kean’s siblings were as follows (according to Victoria BDM):
* Jno Francis (‘Jack’) Kean b.1896 (22305/1896) NCOTE
* Thos Jos (‘Tom’) Kean b. 1898 (13241/1898) NCOTE
* Chrisr Geo (‘Chris’) Kean b. 1900 (3047/1900) Fitzroy North
* Mary (‘Dolly’) Kean b. 1901 (26724/1901) Fitzroy North
* Gerte Josine (“Gertie”) Kean b. 1904 (10139/1904) Fitzroy North
Their mother is referred to as “Mary [Deely]” in some entries, and “Mary Ann [Deely]” in others. Here’s her death notice in the 24th January 1934 Melbourne Argus – https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/203381332 :
There’s something about Mary, that we still have to clear up. Remember we had the Cabra newspapers talking about the school plays which made mention of both May and Mary together on two occasions. If May turns out to be Ma ly, then that seems to leave only Marjorie to cover Mary which is confusing because, she got her mentions usually unshortened.
The name Maly is reported to be Czech origin as is Josephina apparently, which does not really tally up with an Irish Catholic family named Kean, nor for that matter do her death plaque age details. When she married at Sth Yarra in late ’47, neither mum or dad seemed to have attended the well covered wedding, which in itself must have been disappointing for the couple. Flight Lieutenant William Pill may have come home on a short furlough from his BCOF Japan posting, to hitch up with his lady love from Point Cook (RAAF), where they probably met during the war. He would have had to return to finish his stint with 81 Flight (Mustangs) most likely and as it was a married posting, Maly should have accompanied him….So her dad may have worked for Australian Customs when he retired as Snr. Clerk in 1961, which could have meant he was an inspecting officer back in 1948, sniffing around ships holds, port storage facilities and even the odd railway cloak room, for contraband and presumably getting to know the book clerks connected with such establishments (NNWWSNM)…The plot thickens a bit as the laws of really weird co-incidence take over; but alas the Keane suitcase and Japanese toothpaste can wait for the morrow. PS: John Lyons related to young John Raffles that he was told at the inquest about SM being of Czech nationality.
John,
the Weekend Australian carried the story of the Somerton Man in a several page article round about 2003. In this article, or maybe in the reader comments a week or two later, someone mentioned that Leane or Brown had claimed that SM was an Eastern European because of distinctive dental work. So, maybe SM was a Czech.
John,
I note that the female given name Mally appears to be restricted to Scandinavia. See: https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Mally
In Scandinavia the name is largely restricted to Norway with 56 examples (and 5 from Sweden and 1 from Denmark).
See: Statistisk Sentralbyrå, National statistics office of Norway, http://www.ssb.no
We’re lucky to have a firm supportive, given DOB of 20/5/22 for Maly Josepha Kean upon inlistment in the RAAF, though we still need to deal with the discrepency of her stated age at death, which the Adelaide Genealogy Soc. can surely clear up. Likewise we’ll need a correct DOB for her older sister Marjorie bn. ?/?/1921 just to check for any possible questioning of mother Eileen’s birth spacing times. Of course Mary’s ID is still very much in need of some clarification in order to finally put this one to bed with full confidence.
Nick, I really have to give you credit for being able to juggle so many balls at the same time.
Byron, the gift Ina Harvey received from her mysterious lodger is not something commonly done in Australia .. at least in my experience – that being the case, do think it might indicate a European custom ?
I think it was a small blue ceramic container, possibly containing a scented powder.
Dusty? What’s your read on this?
Pete, Yes, I agree. More likely a European custom.
It does seem that Bill Pill spent an inordinantly long period of his service life on overseas posting to Japan from 1945, finally returning home in November 1952 from Iwakuni and giving his pre 1939 Brighton Road address. Whether he progressed further in a peacetime airforce is unclear (paywall), or even whether he and Maly stayed together as I can’t find him dead in Brisbane where she died or in his home town of Elwood (St. Kilda).
@JS: My previous post musta got lost in the ether…..what’s wrong with a 1922 birth date?
Born 20 May ’22
1 year old 20 May ’23
3 year old 20 May ’25
13 year old 20 May ’35
53 year old 20 May ’75
= 53 years old at death 1 May 76
Or did I miss someit?
milongal: My error. Your fingers count better than mine.
peteb: ‘Slarlet lilly of the valley’, G.J. Coles, Rundle St. 4/6. Round cardboard.
The problem with Maly Josepha Kean’s Czech name can’t be allowed to be buried deeper, with the appearance of each new thread. The conundrum should have been easy to resolve by obtaining big sister’s date of birth and apply the twelve month gestation + three for post natal recovery rule ie. 20/5/22 minus 365 days or more to confirm Marjorie’s likely blood sibling relationship. Failing the test would of course give rise to all sorts of theories including a Maly adoption, illegal or otherwise &c.,should the latter be the case, the odds for a possible Somerton connection must surely increase…..Unfortunatately none of my trap searches for Marjorie’s birth details, through the usual means have proven fruitful, to the extent that some indexing has thrown up conflicting information. Even checking through a list of her 1936 Cabra Intermediate certificate pals, for a round about birth month in 1921 bombed out, with none of the girls even sharing the same year, ranging from 1915 for Lorna P. through to 1922 for Olive R….I’m sure that someone without pay wall constraints will join in and provide the answer for resolution once and for all…
john sanders: I suspect you’re dreaming of some kind of Czech mate here, and that her given name of Maly was simply a variant spelling of Mae-Lea, which was still relatively unknown in the 1920s.
Maly as it stands I can live with, as a cute variant of Mae-Lea or May Lee, though when it’s backed up with Josepha, my hackles rise and I start to wonder eg. Xmas 47, and a middle aged immigrant widower from St Kilda happens to see a photo and read a caption, in a Melbourne paper, that brings back sad memories of his long lost daughter and a young wife who could not live without her stolen infant child…He doggedly follows a trail that leads to Adelaide a year later, hoping for a reunion with his Maly and retribution for those who had caused his many years of heartbreak. The rest is history and we’ve all seen mushy movies with a similar haunting theme. Who knows Boris may have become a nit keeper not known by name, but for his ability to spot the law and shout warning in a language not picked up by the coppers, but quite familiar to the gaming house talent.
Researching the whole KEAN family, but mostly the first child, John Francis KEAN. Born: 1896 Northcote Vic #22305. [m] 1926 to Eileen Margaret O’Connell. He died 24 July 1940 at Oakleigh, Vic #6982. Aged 43 years.
He served in WW1 as a Corporal in 59th battalion & as a Sergeant with 2nd Division HQ.
Reason for my research?
I am conducting research into all men who were members of the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) and John Francis KEAN was one of those men. Looking for any history and pictures of him.
Cheers and thanks in advance
Gavin M. Lee,
Nothing much to know about your J. F. Kean that you didn’t find on his two WW1 service files already; apart from him being a GHQ clerk with the AIF in London plus a short stint in France before being sent back to blighty in 1918 with the flu. It seems that after RTA and discharge he bacame a writer of sorts there being three publications recorded from ’27 to ’30 in NAA copyrights, two under the same name and one with the pen name of Duane. Sorry can’t help with any pics or further relevant info at present. js