David Tyrell Keyes

KEYES, David Tyrrell- – – – – SPC 1905-1909

DoB:- – 15 January 1893, Nathalia, VIC

Father:- – Francis Joseph Keyes

Mother:- – Annie Maria, nee Kelly

In the Senior Public exams in 1908, Tyrrell Keyes matriculated in English language and literature (Honours), Latin language and literature (Honours), British history (Honours), trigonometry.

He received a -£125 scholarship to Ormond College at Melbourne University. He was first in the entire French exam, gained honours in Senior Physics and Elementary Mechanics. He embarked on a medical degree after leaving St Patrick’s.

Service No:– –

Rank:- – Captain

Unit:- – Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC)

David Keyes enlisted on 24 July 1916. He was an unmarried man, aged 23 years and six months, and was five feet, ten and a half inches tall. He was a medical practitioner, like his father. He applied for a Commission in the Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC).

Officer Keyes embarked at Brisbane on 7 September 1916 aboard the Clan McGillveray, disembarking at Plymouth, England on 2 November. The following month he proceeded overseas to France and was attached to the 7th Australian Field Ambulance.

On 25 April 1917, Captain Keyes was -‘slightly gassed’ in France and was subsequently admitted to the 8th General Hospital on 6 May, seriously ill. By July, he had not recovered and was returned to Australia aboard the Euripides for -‘a change’, due to pneumonia. On 22 October 1917 his appointment with the AIF was terminated due to Captain Keyes being medically unfit.

When he returned to Australia, David Tyrell Keyes settled in Sydney, NSW. He married Alice Upton in 1926. They had at least one child, a son D C Keyes, who wrote to the Central Army Records Office in Melbourne in 1969 asking if they could advise him of his father’s date of death. D C Keyes was living at 11A Martin Street, Haberfield, NSW in 1969.

David Tyrell Keyes died in 1930 in Katoomba, NSW at the age of 37 years.