General News
27 July, 2024
Veteran's Voices: Roderick James Keegan
- Sally Bertram, RSL Military History Library. Contact Sally at sj.bertram@hotmail.com or call 0409 351 940.
Roderick James Keegan was born at Yulicourt, Hamilton, the son of John and Ann Kegan of Tyres Street, Hamilton.
As an adult he became a coach builder, living in Mill Road, Hamilton, and served in the Citizen Forces.
Roderick enlisted as a private on March 27 1916 with Army Service Number 498.
His unit was recorded as 39th Battalion, B Company.
Roderick embarked with the 10th Infantry Brigade, 39th Battalion, B Company, from Melbourne on board HMAT A11 Ascanius on May 27 1916 and disembarked at Devonport, England, on July 18 1916.
Reinforcements were given only basic training in Australia.
Their training was completed in training units in England, some of which were located in the Salisbury Plain and surrounding areas in the county of Wiltshire.
On November 23 1916 Roderick proceeded overseas to France.
He was wounded in action by gas on June 7 1917 and was admitted to 12th Australian Field Ambulance the same day.
From there he was transferred to 9th Australian Field Ambulance.
Having recovered sufficiently, Roderick was discharged to duty on June 14 and rejoined 39th Battalion in the field on June 15.
On July 17 he was admitted to 11th Australian Field Ambulance with pleurisy.
Later that day Roderick was transferred to 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station.
He was taken to Ambulance Train 12 and admitted to 1st South African General Hospital at Abbeville, France, on July 19.
He was marked for transfer to England on August 15 and embarked on Hospital Ship St Patrick on August 16.
That day he was admitted to Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, England.
He was transferred to the military hospital at Richmond on November 6 1917, then on November 9 he was transferred to 1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Harefield, Middlesex.
Roderick died at 1st Australian Hospital Haberfield Park, Harefield, at 7.05am on November 20 1917 of tuberculosis of the lungs and, as a secondary cause, exhaustion.
He was 21 years of age.
Roderick was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's Church in Harefield, Hillingdon, where 112 other World War I Australian war graves are located.
Roderick James Keegan is commemorated on on panel 35 of the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, on the Hamilton Fire Brigade Pictorial Honour Roll, on the Hamilton Primary School Roll of Honour and on the Hamilton War Memorial.
Diseases of World War I
Most Australian troops who succumbed to disease during the war died from respiratory-tract infections - commonly influenza and pneumonia.
Combined, they claimed some 3300 Australian lives during the war, and many more were debilitated by the effects long afterwards.
By 1930 almost 8000 ex-servicemen were receiving disability pensions for asthma, bronchitis, pleurisy or pneumonia.
Late in the war the Spanish flu pandemic struck.
Among the AIF in France there were nearly 22,000 cases from the middle of 1918 and 1238 men died.
Tuberculosis (TB) presented yet another threat for Australians serving overseas.
While men were screened for the disease before enlisting, some infected men undoubtedly got through.
Harsh wartime living conditions at the front often resulted in the disease worsening and becoming active.
During the war about 343 Australian troops died of TB and another 2000 sufferers were repatriated home.
Like malaria, TB is a lingering disease that can take years to become active.
Before the discovery of the antibiotic drug streptomycin in the 1940s, TB was eventually fatal for most.
How many more died of tuberculosis in the decades after the war is unknown, but by 1930 there were still about 1000 TB sufferers receiving war disability pensions.
Apart from gastro-intestinal infections, venereal disease (VD) was also rife.
The statistics are shockingly high, ranging from about 53,000 to 60,000 men who were treated firstly and then sent home for treatment.
It was decided later that treatment would be at the 1st Australian Dermatological Hospital at Bulford in England.
If there was early intervention it could be cured, but syphilis in particular was difficult to eradicte once it had become well established.
These same diseases were prevalent in the civilian population of Australia as well, some historians suggest at an even higher rate.
Alltold, there were nearly 438,000 non-battle casualties in the AIF during the war.
Of these, 5363 died of disease and about 1000 were killed in accidents.
With thanks: Sally Bertram, RSL Military History Library. Contact Sally at sj.bertram@hotmail.com or call 0409 351 940.