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Just learned that my uncle Prosper Keating died in Southend-on-Sea on 17.1.2014 aged 88. It is very likely that he was the small lad with the big nose and the bare helmet behind the local beauty on the captured Hun motorbike in this photo taken in Calvados in the summer of 1944.
He was one of the Dublin boys who disapproved of de Valera's neutral stance and ran away to Ulster to join up aged just 17. Of course, his father was a veteran of Gallipoli, The Somme and Passchendaele. An uncle had been an RFC gunner and pilot. Another, Dan Keating, was part of the head shed of 1st Bn Royal Ulster Rifles, which came home from India to join the BEF in France in 1939 and 1940. He may even have been 2iC.
My great-uncle Dan, who was famous or infamous for standing for hours in the surf at Dunkirk with the RSM making sure every man coming past him had a full complement of kit before embarking, summoned his nephew when he heard of his presence at the Depot as a recruit.
"Stand at ease!"
"Sir!"
"How's your mother?"
"Very well, sir!"
"How's your father?"
"Very well, sir!"
"Getting along alright?"
"Yes sir!"
"Very good. Dismiss!"
That was the last Uncle Prosper saw of Great-Uncle Dan. He ended up in Support Coy 1st Bn RUR, 6th Airborne Division, landing by glider in Normandy in the early hours of 6.6.1944. He was in one of the two Anti-Tank Platoons. He also took part in Operation Varsity in 1945, which he described as not as grim as Normandy.
For years, he wouldn't say much about any of it other than to admit to being there and, occasionally, tell a funny story. As veterans do… Mind you, he was quietly chuffed to see another Lance-Corporal Prosper Keating from Dublin wearing the maroon beret. When he was much older, he opened up a bit, recalling the carnage on the LZ when Jeeps, guns and limbers broke loose in the Horsas on landing.
He also said that he was one of just three members of his platoon alive and unharmed by the end of the first day. He ended up at Bn HQ like other men from wiped-out sub-units, which underlines the probability that the above photo taken in the vicinity of Bn HQ includes him. The nose couldn't belong to anyone else but Jimmy Durante and we can be fairly sure than Mr Durante was not with 1st Bn RUR at the time.
Like many other Irish veterans, he couldn't return to Dublin afterwards and settled in Stockton-on-Tees, later moving to Southend where he married his second wife Joan, a former member of the WRAF with an MiD to her name.
May the road rise up to meet you, Uncle Prosper, and save us a wild boar or two in Valhalla cos we'll all be staggering in behind you sooner or later...
Love,
P
Just learned that my uncle Prosper Keating died in Southend-on-Sea on 17.1.2014 aged 88. It is very likely that he was the small lad with the big nose and the bare helmet behind the local beauty on the captured Hun motorbike in this photo taken in Calvados in the summer of 1944.
He was one of the Dublin boys who disapproved of de Valera's neutral stance and ran away to Ulster to join up aged just 17. Of course, his father was a veteran of Gallipoli, The Somme and Passchendaele. An uncle had been an RFC gunner and pilot. Another, Dan Keating, was part of the head shed of 1st Bn Royal Ulster Rifles, which came home from India to join the BEF in France in 1939 and 1940. He may even have been 2iC.
My great-uncle Dan, who was famous or infamous for standing for hours in the surf at Dunkirk with the RSM making sure every man coming past him had a full complement of kit before embarking, summoned his nephew when he heard of his presence at the Depot as a recruit.
"Stand at ease!"
"Sir!"
"How's your mother?"
"Very well, sir!"
"How's your father?"
"Very well, sir!"
"Getting along alright?"
"Yes sir!"
"Very good. Dismiss!"
That was the last Uncle Prosper saw of Great-Uncle Dan. He ended up in Support Coy 1st Bn RUR, 6th Airborne Division, landing by glider in Normandy in the early hours of 6.6.1944. He was in one of the two Anti-Tank Platoons. He also took part in Operation Varsity in 1945, which he described as not as grim as Normandy.
For years, he wouldn't say much about any of it other than to admit to being there and, occasionally, tell a funny story. As veterans do… Mind you, he was quietly chuffed to see another Lance-Corporal Prosper Keating from Dublin wearing the maroon beret. When he was much older, he opened up a bit, recalling the carnage on the LZ when Jeeps, guns and limbers broke loose in the Horsas on landing.
He also said that he was one of just three members of his platoon alive and unharmed by the end of the first day. He ended up at Bn HQ like other men from wiped-out sub-units, which underlines the probability that the above photo taken in the vicinity of Bn HQ includes him. The nose couldn't belong to anyone else but Jimmy Durante and we can be fairly sure than Mr Durante was not with 1st Bn RUR at the time.
Like many other Irish veterans, he couldn't return to Dublin afterwards and settled in Stockton-on-Tees, later moving to Southend where he married his second wife Joan, a former member of the WRAF with an MiD to her name.
May the road rise up to meet you, Uncle Prosper, and save us a wild boar or two in Valhalla cos we'll all be staggering in behind you sooner or later...
Love,
P
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