Second Lieutenant Seawood Peter Keay
Australian War MemorialSeawood Keay was born in Williamstown, Victoria in June 1895. Known as Stan, he was the third of five children born to Peter and Clara Keay.
Seawood grew up in the family home in Heller Street, Brunswick. After completing his schooling, he found work as a clerk with the public service while undertaking additional commercial training.
Keay attempted to enlist in the Australia Imperial Force three times, firstly on the 8th of January 1915 and again on the 10th of January 1916. Both times his bad knee precluded him from active service, though he was able to briefly serve as company clerk on the 19th of January 1916, and given the rank of Acting Corporal.
His application for active service was finally accepted on the 18th of June 1916, and he was assigned to the 4th reinforcements of the 59th Battalion with the rank of private. After less than two months of initial training, Private Seawood Keay departed Melbourne in HMAT Orsova on the 1st of August 1916, bound for England.
Upon arriving in England, Seawood was briefly attached to the 15th Infantry Training Battalion at Hurdcott before being detached for duty to the 1st Australian Army Pay Corps in London in late September 1916 as a pay clerk.
In early November, Keay found himself in hospital suffering from nasal issues and headaches, but within a few days returned to Headquarters and the Pay Corps, where he passed the winter of 1916-1917.
Seawood rejoined the 15th Training Battalion at Hurdcott on the 23rd of April 1917, and two days later proceeded overseas to France to join the 59th Battalion in the field.
By the 2nd of May, with his knee causing issues once again, Seawood was detached to the 15th Infantry Brigade Headquarters. He remained working within Headquarters as a clerk for the next few months, moving to the 5th Divisional Headquarters in late June and returning to AIF Headquarters in London on the 23rd of September.
During this period, Seawood was accepted for training with the fledgling Australian Flying Corps. On the 5th of October 1917, he left the AIF Headquarters in London and marched into the AFC Depot at Halton Camp in East Wendover to commence his flying training. Mustered as an Air Mechanic 2nd Class, he joined the Number 1 School of Military Aeronautics at Reading.
Flying technology was still relatively new by the First World War, and the use of aircraft was a major development in modern warfare. By 1918, aircraft were equipped with machine guns, and were used as fighters, for reconnaissance or artillery spotting, and for bombing operations inside enemy territory.
Seawood graduated from the School of Military Aeronautics on the 16th of June 1918, and was appointed a Flying Officer (Pilot) with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. After spending a week on command at Number 1 Royal Air Force School of Fighting and Aerial Gunnery in Turnberry, Seawood proceeded overseas to France on the 11th of August 1918. He joined No. 4 Squadron at Reclinghem in northern France.
Flying was dangerous, even outside of bombing raids and dogfights. On the 22nd of August 1918, Keay’s aircraft collided with another aircraft from No. 4 Squadron. Both the wings fell off his machine, and eye witnesses reported that he then spun into the ground from a height of around 4,000 feet.
Following the crash, Seawood was immediately rushed to the nearby 39th Stationary Hospital with fractures to both his legs. The crash would prove fatal, he died in hospital of his wounds later that evening.
He was 23 years old.
In the years following Seawood Keay’s death, his family and friends inserted commemorative notices and poems into local Melbourne newspapers in his memory. On the 7th anniversary of his death, his mother Clara published the following short poem, reflecting her continuing grief and heartache over the loss of her son:
“There’s a memory comes at nightfall,
Hidden thoughts of other years,
And a face that’s filled with sweetness
As I view it through my tears.
His remains were buried in Aire Communal Cemetery in northern France.
