Coonamble NSW
1642A
45th Battalion
Tooraweenah Kookaburra
RTA 18.7.1919
Private Hilton Keegan was a 22 year old labourer of Coonamble when he and his brother, Herbert enlisted on 12 January, 1916 at Tooraweenah and marched to Bathurst with the Kookaburra Recruitment March. Hilton was born in Warren, NSW to James and Esther Keegan. Hilton’s wife, Revinus Keegan of Wee Waa, NSW was his next of kin. The medical examination described him as 5’6” tall, 140lbs (63kgs), chest 35”-37”, dark complexion, blue eyes, dark brown hair, a scar on his right temple and his religion was Roman Catholic.
Hilton embarked from Sydney on board HMAT’ Ceramic’ on 14 April 1916 with the 45th Battalion and his brother, Herbert Keegan 1643. They trained in Egypt and England and arrived in France in August 1916 to face the bleak winter in the Somme.
In August 1917, around Passchendaele, Hilton suffered a gunshot wound which fractured his right arm. He was one of 32 men wounded and five men were killed in the action. He was sent to England for treatment and convalescence at the Military Hospital in Canterbury and the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital in Dartford. Hilton rejoined his unit in France in December 1917 and remained with the 45th Battalion during the remainder of the war. He was sick in hospital in France from March to June1919, and began his journey home to Australia on 18 July 1919 on HT ‘Takada’, arriving in Melbourne on 7 September 1919. Hilton and his brother, Herbert were discharged in Sydney on 20 October 1919. According to the NSW BDM Records, he died in 1965 in the Kiama district.
He was issued the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He is commemorated on the Coonabarabran War Memorial and the Baradine Honor Roll.
Photo is the men who enlisted 12 Jan 1916 in Tooraweenah but does not have names.