Edward Keane

Edward Vivian Harvey Keane (8 August 1844 – 9 July 1904) was an Australian engineer, businessman, and politician. Born in Birkenhead, England, he was educated at Christ's Hospital, and emigrated to Melbourne, Victoria, in 1876. Keane then moved to South Australia, where he worked as a railway engineer. He later moved to Western Australia, where he served in both the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council.

Early life Keane was born on 8 August 1844 in Birkenhead, Cheshire. His father, also Edward Keane, was a captain in the Royal Navy, and was a relative of John Keane, 1st Baron Keane, who had been made a peer for his service in India.

In the mid-1870s, construction was begun on a railway line in the Kapunda area of South Australia, with Keane appointed as the engineer in charge of the project. The line was originally surveyed to run through Illawarra, a property owned by Abraham White, brother of James White MP, but Keane had a new survey carried out so that the line was moved away from the property. He married White's daughter, Lilla Rebecca Wharton White (1858–1934), at St Peter's College Chapel in Adelaide on 27 May 1879. They would later have five children.

Death While campaigning for election to East Province in July 1904, prior to the upcoming elections, Keane caught a cold, which subsequently developed into pleurisy and pneumonia. The West Australian observed that the "exigencies of an election campaign probably accounted for the trouble receiving slight attention". His condition having worsened, Keane was removed to Miss McKimmie's Private Hospital on Havelock Street in what is now West Perth, where he died of heart failure on the morning of 9 July. He was buried the following day in the Church of England section of Karrakatta Cemetery, with the Bishop of Perth, Charles Riley, officiating at the service. Flags were flown at half-mast in Perth the day of the funeral. Four men nominated for the vacancy caused by Keane's death (Hugh Edmiston, Vernon Hamersley, E. J. Hart, and Isidore Grimish), with Hamersley eventually elected.

Legacy In the early 1890s, Keane purchased of land at Cottesloe (now Peppermint Grove) adjoining the Swan River, surrounding a point in the river called Butler's Hump (now known as Keane's Point). A large home, Cappoquin House (named after Cappoquin, the Keane family's original residence in County Waterford, Ireland), was built at the site, with the family taking up residence in 1894. The following season he relinquished his role as president to Hector Rason, and was made patron of the club, replacing Edward Scott. In May 1888, Keane was elected president of the league, necessitating him to relinquish his position at the Victorians.

In 1896, Keane, along with several local residents, agreed to form a sailing club based in Freshwater Bay, near his residence in Peppermint Grove. The Freshwater Bay Yacht Club first participated in races the following year, and later received a royal charter. Keane's old residence, Cappoquin House, is still used by the club as a clubhouse.