Digory Keals was the youngest of eight siblings – five brothers and three sisters – born to London couple William and Fanny Keals. William, eldest son Edwin and Digory relocated to Perth in early 1912 and were soon joined by the rest of the family at their new home on Wharf Street in Queens Park. Keals spent his Saturday afternoon’s on the football field with Junior League teams Swans, YMCA and Queens Park, the latter formed in 1914 by his brother Frank.
When the 1915 season wound-up the two youngest Keals boys joined the war effort by enlisting in the recently raised 28th Battalion. In France, Keals suffered shrapnel wounds to right arm which had him hospitalised for two months from June 1916. Shortly before Christmas he was attached to the 2nd Divisional Headquarters, where he was promoted from Private to Lance Corporal to Corporal and eventually Lieutenant Sergeant.
He was discharged in May 1919 and returned to Australia three months later. Keals re-appeared on the football field briefly in 1920 as a referee and in 1922 he pulled on the boots for Casuals United, playing two seasons. By now he was married to Dorothy Bellman with who he would soon start a family.
Keals passed away in Perth on 7 June, 1953, at the age of 58.