Robert McKeen

Robert McKeen (12 July 1884 – 5 August 1974) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. He was Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Early life He was born in 1884 in Edinburgh and received his education in West Calder, West Lothian, Scotland. In Scotland, he was active in the labour movement, and worked as a grocer's assistant in a co-operative store. He was the Member of Parliament for Wellington South from 1922 to 1946, then Island Bay from 1946 to 1954, when he retired. McKeen was Labour's junior whip in 1935 and 1936, and its senior whip in 1937 and 1938. He was Chairman of Committees from 1939 to 1946. Subsequent to that, he was the twelfth Speaker of the House of Representatives, from 1947 to 1950.

He was on the Wellington City Council for 18 years, and the Wellington Harbour Board for nine years.

He was mayor of Otaki for six years in the 1950s.

In 1935, McKeen was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal, and in 1953 he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1960 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services in public affairs as a trade unionist, Member of Parliament and Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Family and death He married Jessie Russell, the daughter of Robert Russell. He died in Ōtaki on 5 August 1974, and was buried at the Kelvin Grove Cemetery in Palmerston North.