21 Facts About Richard Keane

Richard Valentine Keane was an Australian politician and trade unionist.

Richard Keane was a member of the Australian Labor Party and served as Minister for Trade and Customs from 1941 until his death in 1946.

Richard Keane was a member of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Richard Keane possessed papers showing that his father had served with the Union in the American Civil War under the name "Timothy Kane", and had received a commendation for his role in the Battle of Sailor's Creek.

Richard Keane was educated at Christian Brothers College, St Kilda, following his father's transfer to Melbourne.

Richard Keane later became the first president of the school's Old Boys association.

In 1897, aged 16, Richard Keane began working as a clerk with the Victorian Railways in Bendigo.

In 1918, Richard Keane became an officeholder in the Victorian Railways Union.

Richard Keane supported industrial unionism and unsuccessfully advocated for the ARU to merge with the Australian Workers' Union.

Richard Keane 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.

Richard 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.

Richard Keane was narrowly defeated for Bendigo at the 1934 election, but was elected to the Senate at the 1937 election.

Richard Keane became leader of the government in the Senate in 1943.

In October 1941 Richard Keane was appointed Minister for Trade and Customs and Vice-President of the Executive Council in the first Curtin Ministry and was responsible for administering wartime rationing and price controls.

Richard Keane subsequently quipped that "I somehow wish I had been smoking a cigar".

Richard Keane died at a hospital in Washington, DC, on 26 April 1946, aged 65.

Richard Keane had collapsed earlier in the day at the Australian embassy due to heart trouble, which was attributed to over-work.

Richard Keane had taken over the administration of the embassy while awaiting the arrival of the new ambassador, Norman Makin.

In 1909, Richard Keane married Ruby Thorne, a milliner, with whom he had two daughters and a son.

Richard Keane was widowed in 1923 and remarried in 1940 to Millicent Dunn, a typist, with whom he had another daughter, Virginia.

Richard Keane stood 6 feet tall and reportedly weighed 127 kilograms.