More about John Keenan

John has no known grave but is remembered on the Le Touret Memorial.

John Keenan   2406   Black Watch

KEENAN^___Private John (of Lochee), No 2406, 4th Black Watch (T.F.): last heard of, by postcard dated 25th April, from No. 1 Territorial Base, Rouen, France.  Can any soldier give information to his sister, Mrs Mary Keenan, Loftus House, Broughty Ferry.

Dundee Courier 15th June 1915

LOCHEE SOLDIER’S WIFE.

Sent to Prison for Bigamy.

Bridget Devlin or Keenan (30), 45 Cobden Street, Lochee, appeared before Sheriff Neish at Dundee to-day on a charge of bigamy.

She pleaded guilty to having, although the lawful wife of Private John Keenan, of the Black Watch (now missing believed to be dead), who was then alive, bigamously married Private Hugh Rafferty, of the Black Watch, on 22d December, 1914.

Mr W. F. Mackintosh, procurator-fiscal, stated that accused was lawfully married to Keenan on 12th October, 1907.  They separated after a very short time, and accused began to cohabit with Rafferty.  She had two children to the latter, but they had died.  Keenan joined the army in August, 1914, and he believed to have been killed on 9th May, 1915.

Mr John Rose, solicitor, appeared on accused’s behalf.  He said that she left Keenan because he was a man of loose habits, and a short time afterwards she became acquainted with Rafferty.  On going to the army Rafferty had felt that the accused was more likely to look after his child if he was married to her.  Accused had since learned that Rafferty joined the army as a single man.  She would have got a separation allowance whether they were married or not, as she had cohabited with him and been dependant on him for so many years.

Sherriff Neish sentenced Keenan to a month’s imprisonment.

Dundee Evening Telegraph 13th November 1916