OK, we’ve had a few posts looking for (what turned out to be) Thomas Joseph Kean (1898-1968) from Forestville, who was – I’m now moderately sure – the first of the two men flagged up by Byron Deveson. So now it’s time to move onto John Joseph Keane of Union Street, Dulwich, Adelaide, who was a bookmaker’s clerk and nitkeeper in the years before WW2.
As before, we have little to go on. Keane’s age was reported as being 34 on 5/9/1932, and as being 40 on 26/1/1939: if both are correct, they imply he was born between 27/1/1898 and 5/9/1898, which is a tolerably narrow range of birth dates. And he was a bookmaker’s clerk in 1939. What can Trove tell us?
Bookmaker’s Licence
Here’s something that we might reasonably identify with our elusive man, from the Adelaide Advertiser, 11 Aug 1934:
BETTING CONTROL BOARD.
NOTICE is hereby given that the BOOKMAKER’S LICENCE heretofore granted by the Betting Control Board to MERVYN GIFFORD WILSON, has been CANCELLED by the Betting Control Board.
NOTICE is also given that the under-mentioned bookmakers have NOT RENEWED their LICENCES to bet after the 31st JULY 1934.
KEANE John Joseph.
HEATH George Moore.
MOSS Roy Henry.
NOTICE is also given that all persons (if any) who may have CLAIMS against any of the above mentioned bookmakers, in respect of betting transactions, must file the claims with full particulars thereof at the office of the Betting Control Board not later than the 31st day of AUGUST, 1934, and NOTICE is hereby given that any claims made after the said 31st day of August 1934 will be disregarded by the Betting Control Board so that they will not be covered by the Security or Bond held by the Board.
By order of the Board.
A. G. ALEXANDER Secretary. 17 Flinders Street, Adelaide.
Knowing that, it didn’t take long to find the matching licencing notice, in the Adelaide Advertiser of 9th Feb 1934:
J. J. Keane. 29 Stuart road, Dulwich
J. J. Keane has registered a shop at 29 Stuart road, Dulwich. On one side of the premises are private residences, and there are private homes opposite.
Note that there was also an Adelaide bookmaker called Edmund Joseph Keane, as per this Adelaide News report of 3rd Oct 1935:
Youth Fined for Being In Betting Shop
A fine of £6 with 15/ costs was imposed by Mr. H. M. Muirhead, P.M. in the Adelaide Police Court today on Harry Britt, aged 19, of Park terrace, North Unley, unemployed. Britt pleaded guilty to a charge of having, on September 25, at Adelaide, been present on the licensed bookmaking premises of Edmund Joseph Keane, at South terrace, Adelaide.
Note that this Edmund Keane also did not renew his bookmaking licence on 1st August 1936, according to the notice in the Adelaide News of 7 Aug 1936.
A Fool’s Gold Rush?
The reason that so many bookmakers were popping up in 1934 was that the Lottery and Gaming Act of 1933 had simultaneously decriminalised and licensed off-track bookmaking in South Australia. As a result, there had been a sudden gold rush of people applying for bookmaking licences. Many of the Sportsmen’s clubs of the day were complaining, saying that there were now far too many bookmakers, and that the whole business had become unsustainable: and why oh why can’t we go back to the good old days of on-track betting only? (etc)
At the same time, billiard halls (which were where a great deal of illegal betting had previously been carried) were feeling the pinch from all the new (legal) bookmakers eating their metaphorical lunch: and so many of them too applied for betting licences (but were initially turned down). Billiard hall owners wanted bookmakers to be situated a certain distance away from residential areas as part of their licence conditions, so that both groups could compete fairly with each other: as normal, there were many conflicting opinions.
Whichever way you look at it, though, there was a sharp spike in gambling at that time, as well as an oversupply of (newly-legal) off-track bookmakers. Hence it probably shouldn’t be surprising to us that John Joseph Keane not only applied for a bookmaker’s licence in February 1934 (right at the start of the wave) but also didn’t renew his licence in August 1934 (presumably when bookmaking failed to work out as well as he – and indeed many others – had hoped). Basically, it was like opening a vape shop in 2018. 😉
Dulwich Addresses
We now have several Dulwich addresses for John Joseph Keane through the 1930s:
- Greenhill road (30 Aug 1933) – unspecified, illegal wireless radio
- 29 Stuart road [rented] (09 Feb 1934) – bookmaker, n/a
- [16] Union street (13 Aug 1936) – labourer, hindering
- [16] Union street (25 Jan 1939) – bookmaker’s clerk, hindering
Commenter milongal previously found (via the S&M directory) that there was a “J J Keane, clerk” living at 16 Union Street, Dulwich “from at least 1937 to 1940 […] the clerk in Union St”, which fits neatly with the above timeline. Milongal also found a further “J J Keane” living in (no number) Shierlaw Street, Richmond from about 1940 to 1947, who may or may not be the same person.
As an aside, milongal also noted that “15 Union St was a Billiard Hall with a gambling license (proprietor JJ Collins, I think)”. Similarly, I just noticed that 17 Union Street was the 1935 address of course bookmaker F. J. Dally (“Special Flat” section).
So it seems reasonably likely to me that all these people had ended up in the Venn diagram intersection between struggling billiard hall people and struggling bookmaker people, trying desperately to make ends meet until (say) the whole baccarat school scam took off in the mid-1940s. That, or the whole war-time inter-state Price Commission black market car scam. 🙂
Where Next From Here?
Awkwardly, the answer right now is that I don’t really know. Perhaps there are other police records or police gazettes we should be looking at?
In the absence of any obvious family information to go scurrying around with, Trove also seems a little parched and desert-like. Can you find any Australian ‘John Joseph Keane’s at all born in the narrow date range? (I found seventeen ‘John Keane’s born in Ireland in 1898, but that’s not a huge amount of use.)
And yes, I know about the John Joseph Keane born in Adelaide in 1896, but he doesn’t seem to be our man. 🙁
Here’s something else from Trove – Adelaide Advertiser, 06 Sep 1932: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/34699553
BETTING CHARGE DISMISSED
A charge against John Patrick Keane, clerk, of Dulwich, of having been at
the Arab Steed Hotel, at the corner of Hutt and Giles streets, on May 11, for the purpose of betting, was dismissed by Mr. E. M. Sabine, P.M., in the Adelaide Police Court yesterday. Mr. L. Bond was for the prosecution, and Mr. B. J. Kearney for Keane.
Note that there was also a miner who gave evidence at a mining accident enquiry, whose name was reported as “John Patrick Keane” on 09 Mar 1943: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/56141524
However, I suspect this was actually the 28-year-old miner “John Patrick McKeane” who (while drunk) in 1947 asked a policeman’s help to help him start the car he was “borrowing”: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/142225141
Hence I suspect that “John Patrick Keane” outside the Arab Steed Hotel was the same Dulwich clerk who we are looking for. It may well be that the papers and/or the police got his name wrong on this occasion: or that this was one of his many names.
A further thought: there was an Adelaide course bookmaker called G. A. Kean (from 8 Albert Street, Dulwich), as per the Adelaide Sport of 03 Jan 1935: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/216264136
G. A. Kean was still an Adelaide bookmaker as late as 1947 (but not any later): https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/30506374
There was also a Kean-from-Dulwich wedding in 1931: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/29866549
All of which produced a male son, born 29th June 1932: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/73994266 – Rebecca May Weedman got off a 1937 traffic charge here: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/74361526 – In 1943, their son’s name was reported as Dale: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/124792183 (Ancestry.com reports a Dale Elton Weedman: he later became a pharmacist and the Registrar of Pesticides.)
And if you don’t like all that, how about this Keane-from-Dulwich wedding from 05 Nov 1943, involving two Somerton surnames everyone loves: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/128351047
Are we sick of Kean(e) yet?
Try this one for size – apologies if he’s already been looked at (it didn’t ring a bell)
KEANE J., taxi bus proptr 72 Patton St. Broken Hill
(I found this trove article https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/46587378
….. so ‘bus’ is literally bus, not business, I think)
But if I talk about taxi’s and Broken Hill, who immediately springs to mind?
There’s also J.P. Keane (who I think has been mentioned):
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/216014985
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/133340736
I think he’s referred to as James, Jim and Jas P in different articles
Worked on the railways; owned a pub; trained horses….but too popular and (I think) too old to be SM.
(also, but less interesting KEANE T.B electrcn 355 Wolfram St, Broken Hill – he gets a nice big write up in the Barrier Times in ’37 as he divorces his missus)
Milongal: I’ve always held a soft spot for old paddy and maintain that one Kean-Keane-Keen-Kein or Kane is as good as any handle that you might chance to come across in a big tough country like yours. Can’t have enough of them by my reckoning, whether they be from Melbourne, Adelaide, Broken ‘flammin’ Hill, Sydney or the bush. It makes not the slightest difference and you can give me John K. the cabby, Len K. the diamond driller cum battle field deserter; or Joseph K. the iron founderer, wheelright, moulder and lesser deserter. I just love all those fellas, which of course includes their toiling honest women like Jessie, Maud, Ethel, Bridie; not to forget their cute little ankle biters, frinstance May, Marge, big sister Patricia and the ‘chips off the old block’, Wally, Dan, Tom etc…If one happens to be keening for more, of course we have the old originals like Thomas Lawrence and Thomas Leonard (one from Oz t’other NZ) to fall back on, either or any of whom might stand proud alongside all their more recent nit keeping, wireless toting, nag pulling namesakes.
milongal: there was also a V. M. Kean who was divorcing a J. J. Kean in Sydney in May 1948:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/29763020
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/29761887
…And this one at Brisbane 31st March, 1947..Helen Dunstan Keane v James Thomas Keane in divorce..She states she was married to the defendant in Scotland on December 27th 1918; he was then in the AIF and they lived in Edinburgh until January 1919 when they came out to Brisbane. Later in 1921 she had followed him to El Arish where they lived in a soldier settlement farm, where she remained until March 1927. Her married life was very unhappy, he becoming bad tempered and a drunkard, treatung her cruelly, knocking her about with his fists, calling her mucking chummy and declaring that she was of no use to him. He said that he was fed up, having tried his hand at everything including bullock and horse teams…The upshod is that he cleared out and she never saw hide nor hair of the poor fellow again; though he was served papers on January 30th ’47 and a decree nisi was issued with an absolute three months hence…I’ve mentioned Jim on a number of occasions regarding his presumed later travels under various Keanish aliases in country New South Wales and possibly Sth. Aust., up on minor charges including being found in places of ill repute, civil disorder and theft of property etc…Don’t know what became of him although he had a child to a much younger woman in Queensland around 1931, if anyone’s interested at all.. PS: One of his aliases was Read (mum’s maiden name) which rings a bell.
I’m in need of some ‘authoritive’ definitive clan identification of the SM’s tartan scarf and/or a good photograph thereof. One can only wonder why this simple task was not undertaken back in 1948 when it’s discovery could have pointed in certain direction concerning the wearer’s id. Looking through the Keane suitcase contents lists, it seems that all but TS/BS have been rather negligent on this all important item of apparel eg. 1 scarf was adequate in the opinion of anemptyglass and no mention at all for the ‘Wiki’ mob, if you can beleive that….I think I may know what it is, and although it well may be Gordon’s ‘Lamonte’ or even ‘Black Watch’ I have one other in mind, which I’ll reveal if all pans out..NB: Helen DUNCAN Lackie’s dad David, was serving with his famous Jock regiment when she and James (183cm, fair comp., grey eyes, lt. Brown hair, built like Tarzan) tied the knot just before the war ended.
John,
One problem. The pattern is oblong, not square, and correcting the aspect ratio to square it up clearly gives a distorted, wonky image. It may be a Norwegian tartan but it is more likely a tweed. But all is not lost. Tweeds tend to be associated with Estates.
Byron: The problem is that, although the pic with Det. Horsnells holding the scarf was a sound idea, the shot was pretty awful, andseeing as there appears to be no other, we’ll never likely know what the pattern represents. I’d like to think that it could have been offered up as parting gift to ‘foreskin Jim’ Keane and that it was a Duncan or a Black Watch, proudly presented by his father-in-law, David Duncan Lackie, a horsehandler with the glorious tartan kilted 1st regiment. That neat little ornamental nose ring and lead (loupe) from the suitcase, may also have come from that source, if one chooses to show a little imagination.
John, It seems that there are some rectangular tartans and these are old tartans (pre 1800?).
http://www.tartansauthority.com/resources/faqs/
“Are all tartan patterns square?
Mostly . . . but some patterns(we call them ‘setts’) will have rectangles instead of squares which is really to do with the shape of some of the patterns that were produced in the old days on handlooms.”
Years ago I did some image enhancement and it brought out a bit more detail of the pattern. I will see if I can find the enhanced image.
Milongal: Just spoke with NAA (a lie of course) and they confirm that of the two million odd names accrued in their indices, only three O’Keanes are recorded, none having the Christian name James. Yet two with the name James O’Keane show up on trove, one relating to an offence of being found at ‘common gaming house’ in Orange NSW in 1929 and the other of causing ‘alarm and affront’ at the Crown Hotel, Innisfail in 1935. The offender must almost surely have been James Keane who lived just out of town at El Arish and whose next of kin, Kate Jones owned a liquor store in Gundagai, NSW. We know that Jim shot through on wife Helen in 1927 and later had a son to a younger woman, whom he also abandoned in the thirties. I’m attempting to contact Jim’s grand daughter Alison through the Kempsey NSW historical society who may have information on his eventual plight. Wish me luck…
Trove is NLA rather than NAA and the fact that 2 Government agencies have different facts shouldn’t surprise
(ok, that was unfair – NAA and NLA collect different information and there’s little point indexing names in newspapers)
The only OKeane I ever came across was a Thomas in the aif database
Well I wasn’t expecting so much enthusiasm for my James, so somewhat pleasantly surprised by the response to my NAA/NLA disclosures. I have been giving my man a good deal of airplay of late, deliberarely I must admit, in order to re-emphasise his rather fine credentials for SM..One other that I did pick up from his service records was his having had two periods with tonsillitis, which reminds me that some form of throat ulceration was detected by Dr. Dwyer in his autopsy, from memory….I’ve just this minute found a very interesting little piece of news on one of Mr. O’Keane’s criminal associates which hopefully will lead us to Melbourne and the nit keeping baccarat scene; the information being hot off the wire will need to be polished up a tad before it can go to copy, so be patient.
Canberra Times 23rd Oct. ‘51, Record list in Police Court before Mr. F. KEANE SM.
More than ninety cases were listed for hearing before in the Court of Petty Sessions yesterday..The cases included sixty men charged with being found in a common gaming house..Several of the cases included six charges of braking prices regulation etc etc..including names of all those charged. John MCasey was named as primary defendant and had his tables confiscated along with seventeen hard to replace loaded dice…only one name was familiar to me, being that of the presiding beak, His Worship P. Keane SM…
From what I can gather, Jim Keane was aged 20 when he inlisted in 1915, which would have made him 53 in 1948, perhaps on the fringe of being too old for an SM candidate. Of course it is possible that he had put his age up to satisfy criteria for overseas service like thousands of youths with adventurous spirit. Jim’s mum Ellen was a Reid and she married Frank Keane, a Sydney boy in 1892, at Newcastle where he worked in the mines. It appears dad may have gone to gaol in 1896 and he was likely deceased or had flown the coup by 1901, when Jim’s mum died in child birth; the baby Maude, fathered by Wally Franklin, not surviving either. We know not much about what sort of upbringing our boy had, though it probably entailed being shunted between his relatives, the O’Connors (tanners) of Brisbane and the well heeled Jones mob from Gundagai. He was already known to police for dishonesty before he was ten and he admitted as much to his army recruiter. Apart from this short additional history ends with his Brisbane divorce hearing in 1947, I can’t hint on his subsequent movements. I’m still confident of picking up information from grand daughter Alison, whose photo facial features are rather interesting in my opinion. I have a few other irons in the fire upon which I can fall back on if need be, the main doubt resting with that pesky scar on Jim’s foot of which nothing else is known…ps. There is no doubt in my mind that although our man changed surnames to avoid coming under notice, he probably stuck to his christian names which is fine. I just pulled up a 113 (Brisbane) hospital orderly James Thomas Jones bn. 1898 on nominal rolls for WW2 who has some credentials worth pursuing should it prove necessary.
Some will have discovered that NSW & Queensland regional town graveyards are not exactly overflowing with Keane occupation, as opposed to Victoria & South Australia; So to cut to the quick, my James Thomas remains in limbo, unless his sought after relatives get back to me with details of his demise, which is of course possible. I did get to thinking that if he used the Jones alias to inlist for WW2, he could have ended up in post war Moratai or even Japan, like namesake T.L., due to a somewhat late demob from his 112 AGH (Greenslopes) final posting in March, 1946, but that is for another day.
…..and another twenty bucks, plus two times twenty more for the Repat files, if we wanna go that far for maybe stuff all…J.T.S. Keane was still newsworthy up around the Nth Queensland Johnston River localities in ’34 and ’35, with a contested damages suit brought on him by Tom Martin, a sideshow operator for which Jim was awarded costs; then a constable John Chapman fizzed him for not displaying vehicle licence, plates which that officer may have done maliciously to settle a family grievance…That’s not to say that he hadn’t in the interim, then after the war, been travelling around the three conjoining southern states under his other aliases which he was in the habit of using when it suited him.
James Thomas Keane, became an orphan at age six and was related to a rather disfunctional and quarelsome family, the O’Connors who ran a bare foot hide tanning (scudding) operation along Ipswich Rd. next to Marooka Rail, Brisbane. Walter Herbert Jones, an immigrant (mason) who died in 1927, was also
In the tanning business and his sister in law Kate, who lived in country NSW, seems to have been driver Keane’s nominal NOK upon inlistment in 1915….Apart from giving the J.T. Jones WW2 inlistment theory (Ipswich local) more weight, nothing further has come to light; although you could point to Jim’s WW1 connections with QMS Claude Sarre, from Unley SA, who was of course Malcolm Sarre’s (118 Jetty Rd.) uncle, being a brother to the good doctor’s dad Richard, I think!…