"Looking for Uncle Sonny"

The Keevils, Rawnsleys & Crutchleys in World War I

Michael Organ

Whilst searching through a collection of my mother's old photographs during April 2006 I came across a number of postcard portraits of World War I era (1914-1918) soldiers. My mother - Roma Organ nee Crutchley (b.1930) - was able to identify some of the people pictured, based on her own memories and assisted by the postcard inscriptions. The photographs also started the process of her recalling in greater detail a number of interesting and related family stories, told to her by her mother, aunties and assorted relatives. This outflow of information was further spurred on by a visit she made around this time to Singleton to see her elderly 91 year old sister Idora Philomena May "Maisie" Smith (1915-2006). Roma returned from this trip with copies of some of the family history research Maisie's son Paul Smith had been carrying out in recent years. I, at the time, did not follow any of this up, but I vowed to sit down with my mother at some stage in the near future and record here reminiscences in more detail.

A couple of months later, in June, my 15 year old son Andrew informed me that he was doing an assignment at high school on WWI. As a result, we got talking about possible family involvement in the war and a number of questions came up. I had carried out a detailed investigation into the Organ family line during the 1980s and knew that, through circumstances, none of my immediate Organ ancestors had fought in either of the world wars. However the postcard photographs seen in April then came to mind and I was motivated to investigate further my mother's line of descent - the Crutchleys and the Keevils - specifically focussing on their experiences in World War I. The search began with two images of my mother's uncle "Sonny" Keevil. The account below records details of the search to find out who Sonny was, the various dead-ends encountered, and the findings. It remains a work in progress.

The Keevils

As is often the case with historical research, you can take two steps forward and then hit a brick wall. Such was the case in trying to pin down Uncle Sonny. According to Roma Organ's reminiscences during April-May 2006, "Sonny" Keevil served overseas during World War I and was gassed during an encounter with the enemy. Upon returning to Australia he lived in a health asylum at Orange, in western New South Wales, where he eventually passed away, the victim of the war, the gas and heavy drinking. Roma remembers meeting him once as a 7 year old child in Orange, around 1937. Sonny dropped by the house of my mother's aunty Jeanette's to meet up with his visiting sister May, Roma's mother. This information was all that was available on Sonny at the beginning of my research, along with two postcards supposedly of him, various photocopies of birth, death and marriage records relating to the Keevil and Crutchley families and acquired from Paul Smith, and the invaluable online resources of the Australian War Memorial relating to those who served during World War I. This was more than enough to get started with, and the results came quickly. Additional information was also provided second-hand by the 84 year old Betty Harrison nee Gentle, daughter of the late Sarah Jane "Jeanette" Keevil, sister to Sonny. Perhaps finally, in September a family historian from the north coast of New South Wales - Pat Kennedy - contacted me with information providing conclusive evidence that Sonny was a soldier. But let's go back to the beginning.

Prior to the revelations of Pat Kennedy, the resources at hand told me that Sonny Keevil was one of nine children of Elijah George Keevil (1856-1930) and Mary Ann Byrum (1859-1928). Elijah Keevil was the son of Colin Mark Keevil, born in England in 1818, and Mary Ann Nunan, also born in  England in 1826. The couple had married in Adelaide during 1846. It is unknown when they arrived in the Colony, however we do know that Elijah was born on 28 May 1856 at Fiery Creek, Raglan in Victoria. Elijah Keevil's future wife Mary Ann Byrum was born in the same colony three years later. Following their marriage Elijah was employed driving a Cobb & Co. coach in the Hay district of New South Wales. He travelled extensively, as did his family, however there were also many instances when he was absent on the road. During one such occasion Mary Ann answered a knock on the door and entertained to tea the notorious bushranger Captain Lightfoot - subject of the later Peter Finch movie Robbery Under Arms (1957). A scene in the film presents Lightfoot as a charming man, and one can well imagine Mary Ann welcoming him to tea. The known children of Elijah George Keevil and Mary Ann Byrum were:

1. Herbert Thomas "Bert" Keevil (b.1885).

2. Ernest A. "Ernie" Keevil (b.1888). Ernie was a train driver. He lived at Redfern with his wife Jessie May (b.1900). Unfortunately she died in child birth during 1934, leaving him to take care of 9 children. Some of the children were Terry, Jim and Nancy. His sister Jeanette Keevil travelled to Sydney to help her brother take care of the kids. She moved from Redfern Dulwich Hill with some of the youngest and brought them up there. Ernie also died young, and the rest of the children were left to fend for themselves. It is said that some of the girls went into prostitution to survive during the Depression years.

3. Catherine May "Kate" Keevil (1890-1963). Kate married Edgar Robert Crutchley (1882-1955) in 1912. They were the parents of Roma.

4. Cornelius John (?Joseph) "Sonny" Keevil (1893-1963).

5. William Henry "Bill" or "Will" Keevil (b.? - d.1942). Will married Gladys.

6. Margaret Eveline "Biddie" Keevil (b.1898). Biddie married John Melling "Jack" Spiers of Austinmer near Wollongong on 30 April 1921 at Newtown. The pair subsequently lived in the Newcastle / Stockton area. Jack served in the army during WWI. He was also part of the local contingent that trained in the park at Bulli and serviced the gun formerly mounted on the hill overlooking Bulli beach. Biddie had worked as a saleswoman in one of the large stores in Sydney prior to marrying Jack. Biddie and Jack had three children - Lenny, Neville (d.2005) and Nancy.

7. Mary H. "Myrtle" Keevil (b.1900) - Myrtle died of tuberculosis around 1947. She had married Charlie Leonard who was a taxi driver and "bag man". Their son Charlie Leonard was supposedly a gangster - the story is told of how he protected a Sydney doctor who performed certain illegal operations.

8. Sarah Jane "Jeanette" Keevil. She later moved to Sydney to care for the children of Ernie Keevil when his wife died. Jeanette married a Mr Gentle and their daughter Betty Harrison helped to provide reminiscences during 2006, aged 84. It was suggested that Jeanette was not the natural daughter of Elijan and Mary Ann, but was a cousin brought up by them, and this may explain the lack of official records of her birth.

9. Nita Philomena Keevil (1904-1952). Never married. She was an epileptic.

Private Sonny Keevil?

The "Sonny" Keevil of the postcards found among the collection of Roma Organ and reproduced above was one of the four brothers of Katherine May Keevil and the uncle of Roma Organ. Neither Roma nor Betty Harrison were sure of Sonny's actual name - Roma initially thought it was Will (William), whilst Betty thought Cornelius. This proved problematic, as in seeking information on the military career of "Uncle Sonny", a search of the Australian War Memorial's Nominal Roll for those Australians who fought overseas in World War I between 1914-1918 revealed only the following single entry for a Keevil:

* Private Thomas Keevil | Age 24 | Painter | 2nd Infantry Battalion | Regiment No. 1373 | 30.10.14 - 21.3. 19 | R.T.A | CofE | Father - Thomas Keevil (90), London.

This was not our Sonny. In fact, there appeared to be no record for either Cornelius or Will Keevil serving during WWI, and the aforementioned Thomas does not appear to be our Herbert Thomas or Cornelius Joseph Keevil. For example, Sonny's father was not the 90 year old Thomas Keevil of London, and if Sonny was Cornelius John he would have been closer to 21 when he signed on in 1915 to the 2nd Infantry Battalion AIF. If it was Herbert Thomas then he would have been 29, and if Ernest A. then 26. This unit was part of the 1 to 12 reinforcements taken on between December 1914 - December 1915. The Private Thomas Keevil noted above is recorded as embarking for Europe on the HMAT Seang Bee at Sydney on 11 February 1915. He was eventually discharged on 21 March 1919 after returning to Australia.

Apart from the reminiscences of Roma Organ and Betty Harrison, two contemporary postcard portraits of Sonny Keevil survive in the family collection. They were passed down to Mrs Organ from her mother Catherine May Crutchley. The first postcard (reproduced above) is undated, though there is a note in ballpoint pen on the back that it was taken in Turkey during 1916. The postcard is labelled 'Carte Postale' (French) and contains the following message, supposedly from Sonny, in ink:

"To my dear Sister May with fond love from Will wishing you a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year."

The postcard image is of four soldiers, with Sonny Keevil seated on the right, wearing a set of leather riding boots and a turned up hat reminiscent of that worn by the Australian Lighthorse Regiment. The reference to "Will" is most like his brother William Henry who died at Manly in 1942, though we have no precise details of his birth. This inscription adds to the mystery - is the person in the photograph Will Keevil or Sonny?

In the second postcard (reproduced below), Sonny Keevil is seated by himself and wearing a rather large plinth safari hat.

This postcard bears the following contemporary inscription on the back: "Dear May, this is a photo that we had struck off one that Sonnie sent mum & I got 1 day done. We are sending one each all round. We just got your letter. Mum is writing straight back to you. Mum is sending Maisie & Jack something 2 weeks before Xmas. From your sister Myrtle."

Jack and Maisie were the young children of Catherine May Crutchley. They had been born in 1913 and 1915 respectively and were the older brother and sister of Roma Organ. The postcard was sent to May Crutchley by her sister Myrtle. It is possible that the original photograph she refers to was one of the first Sonny sent back home to the family in Australia from the front. The shorts and hat suggest that he may have been stationed in north Africa at the time. Once again, we are assuming that this photograph is of Sonny Keevil, though there was some ambiguity until September 2006 when Pat Kennedy contacted me and provided concrete information on our subject.

According to Pat Kennedy, Cornelius Joseph Keevil did join the A.I.F. in November 1915. and at the time named his father George Keevil as N.O.K. George was then living at 334 Abercrombie Street, Redfern. Cornelius told the authorities that he was born in Condobolin, his occupation was Billard Marker and at 13 November 1915 was 23 years and 4 months. He signed on Cootamundra and was described as: height 6ft., complexion dark, eyes blue, hair dark and Roman Catholic.

Sonny was immediately attached to B. Company 4th Battalion as a Private but on 20 December 1915, after only five weeks in the A.I.F. he was discharged for "Riotous Behaviour". Pat Kennedy believes that he may have re-joined almost immediately, but under a different name, however to date he has not been located under an alias. Such behaviour was quite normal for young Australia men at the time keen to fight in the war. It therefore seems that the photos of Sonny Keevil on duty overseas are genuine, but that it may prove difficult to pin his movements down if he maintained an alias throughout his period of service.

The Crutchelys and Rawnsleys

Two photographs and two World War II postcards in the collection of Roma Organ feature Joe, "Bert" and Allan Rawnsley and their family. Joe Rawnsley was the brother-in-law of Edgar and May Crutchley and an uncle of Roma Organ. Roma's father - Edgar "Eddie" Robert Crutchley - had a sister Catherine who married Joe Rawnsley in 1893. Both Edgar and Catherine were the children of Herbert Charles Crutchley (1831-1905) and Emily M. Matthews. Herbert and Emily were married in Deniliquin in 1864 and had the following children:

1. Charles Herbert Crutchley (1866-1946). Married Alice Walker (1901) and Margaret A. Barr (1904).

2. Laura J. Crutchley (b.1870)

3. Catherine A. Crutchley (b.1872). Married Joseph H. Rawnsley 1893.

4. Bertha A. Crutchley (b.1873). Married Terence Wilson 1891 and moved to Perth.

5. Frederick W. Crutchley (b.1876). Married Mary Clancy 1915.

6. Clara J. Crutchley (b.1878). Married Walter S. Tysch 1897, a wealthy grazier. They had a number of children including Idora and Goyl.

7. Edgar Robert Crutchley (1884-1955). Married Catherine May Keevil 1912.

Joe and Catherine Rawnsley had three sons Allan Joseph, "Bert" and Arthur Edward. The family can be seen in the following two photographs. The first, dating from about 1905, is of the family standing outside of Joe. H. Rawnsley's store in Alexandria, Sydney.

A Rawnsley family portrait was taken at Grace Brothers, Sydney, sometime around 1914. It features Joe and Cate and the three boys Arthur, Allan and Bert. A very young Bert is seen in the family photo on the far right and is easily recognisable with the postcard of a young soldier taken in 1918 (reproduced below).

Shortly after this portrait was taken war broke out and members of the family considered participating. A postcard in the Roma Organ collection features Allan Rawnsley and his father Joe in military uniform.

The World War I Nominal Roll provides information on the war service of two of the Rawnsley boys:

5728 | Arthur Edward Rawnsley | Private | 3rd Battalion | 4.1.16-18.10.17 | Returned to Australia.

17854 | Allen Joseph Rawnsley | Staff Sergeant | 13th Field Ambulance | Aged 22 | Chemist, Manly NSW | 6.5.17-12.7.19 | Cof E | Father - J.H. Rawnsley, Manly | Returned to Australia.

The following postcard, featuring an image of the young Bert, was sent "to Auntie May and Eddie with love from Bert" on 28 April 1918. 

Compiled by Michael Organ. Site last updated: 27 September 2006. Return to Michael Organ's Home Page. Any comments, corrections, or additions to this site are most welcome.