Senior Constable Samuel Keys was taken in Stokes Lane, Bulli, one week before his death on 27 June 1949. Picture contributed by Donald Keys
OBITUARY
SEN. CONSTABLE S. KEYS
Senior Constable Samuel Keys, of Bulli Police Station, died suddenly at his residence, in Stokes lane, Bulli, on Monday morning, an hour after he had finished duty. Born in 1893 at Drumbulkin, County Mainer, Northern Ireland, he came to Australia in 1912. Prior to coming to Australia he was a member of the Iniskillen Dragoons.
On arrival in Australia he engaged in farming in the Lismore district. When World War I broke out he joined up with the A.I.F. and as a member of the 25th Battalion he saw service at Gallipoli and in France. At the cessation of hostilities he joined the permanent army and rose to the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major. Leaving the army he joined the New South Wales Police Force on December 7, 1920. He was stationed at Regent St., Enfield, and later at Bulli, where he remained from 1933 to the time of his death.
During the unemployed riots in 1930 he was attached to a special police squad which was sent to various Sydney suburbs, Lithgow and Maitland. The late Senr. Constable Keys was, with Senr. Constable Mackintosh, the first police officer on the scene at the time of the Sandon Point murder three years ago, and was associated with the police parties which sought the murderer. He was, during the last war, drill sergeant to the No. 19 Police Division, and continued in that position up to the time of his death. He also drilled the N.E.S. Ladies’ Ambulance Drivers, the V.D.C. and the Police Reservists. He was well known as a keen amateur fisherman, and an enthusiastic member and player of Woonona Bowling Club. He was a member of the Bulli-Woonona R.S.L. and the Bulli Masonic Lodge. He is survived by his widow, three sons and two daughters, Alan, Donald, Colin, Margaret and Mitzi. Following a service conducted by Rev. Hobden at Williams’ Funeral Chapel, Bulli, on Tues day afternoon the cortege moved to the Woronora Crematorium, where a Masonic service was also conducted.
The cortege was preceded by three police motor cyclists, a band comprised of members of the Bulli-Woonona Town Band, Wollongong and Balgownie Bands, playing the Dead March in Saul. Members of the Police Force, R.S.L. and Woonora Bowling Club marched before the hearse. At the service in the Chapel the R.S.L. service was read by Mr. J. Davidson. The Last Post and Reveille was sounded by Bandmaster W. Walker. The coffin was draped with the Union Jack.
– Illawarra Mercury Thursday 30 June 1949
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