Keane, Stephen Vincent (Stephen)
Ship’s Steward Assistant
No. 347362, HMS Victory, Royal Navy
Died of disease on Tuesday 25 January 1916 (aged 25)
Buried:
Bangor Cemetery, Newtownards Road, Bangor, Co. Down (Grave 1A. 7)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Bangor and District War Memorial
Brother of Able Seaman Ernest John Keane
BIOGRAPHY
Stephen Vincent Keane was born on 11 July 1890 in Helen’s Bay Coastguard Station and he was a son of Richard and Elizabeth Keane (nee Sumner, sometimes Summers) who were married around 1874/1875.
Richard Keane served as a Coast Guard in the Royal Navy and he and Elizabeth lived in Cork, Wexford and Whitehead, Co Antrim before they came to live in Helen’s Bay, Co Down.
Richard and Elizabeth Keane had at least eight children including:
Minnie (born around 1877/1878 in County Cork)
Anne Maria (Annie, born 9 October 1883 in Barrow, Wexford)
Ernest John (born on 7 December 1887 in Clandeboye Coastguard Station, Bangor)
Hugh Thomas (born 20 February 1889 in Helen’s Bay Coastguard Station)
Stephen Vincent (born 11 July 1890 in Helen’s Bay Coastguard Station)
Stephen Vincent Keane was born in County Down and like his father he joined the Royal Navy. He joined at Portsmouth on his 18th birthday and it was noted that he was 5 feet 4¾ inches tall with black hair, hazel blue eyes and a dark sallow complexion. He had a mole on his right forearm.
Ship’s Steward Assistant Stephen Vincent Keane served at the Battle of Falkland Islands and at the Dardanelles and was admitted to Malta Hospital in May 1915 with a pulmonary condition. He was invalided out of the Navy in June 1915.
Ship’s Steward Assistant Stephen Vincent Keane died of pulmonary tuberculosis at 37 Dufferin Avenue, Bangor on 25 January 1916 – just fifteen days after his father Richard died on 10 January 1916 (aged 77) at the same address.
Stephen’s sister Minnie was with him when he died.
Ship’s Steward Assistant Stephen Vincent Keane was 25 when he died and he was buried in Bangor Cemetery, Newtownards Road, Bangor. His family paid for an additional inscription on his CWGC headstone to commemorate his brother, Able Seaman John Ernest Keane.
Ship’s Steward Assistant Stephen Vincent Keane is commemorated on Bangor and District War Memorial and on his CWGC headstone in Bangor Cemetery, Newtownards Road, Bangor which also bears the inscription:
ALSO IN MEMORY OF
225455 A.B. ERNEST JOHN KEANE
SUBMARINE ‘B.9’
DIED 5TH AUGUST 1915 AGE 27