Frank Keals was schooled at St Mary’s in Balham, London, prior to his family’s move to Perth in July 1913. The previous year his father, William, and two of his brothers had established a new home for the family of ten on Wharf Street in Queens Park.
Keals got his first taste of football in Western Australia with the YMCA club towards the end of the 1913 season. Early the following year he founded the Queens Park club, whose first fixture produced a 4-2 win over Boan Bros. In addition to playing for Queens Park, Keals served as a delegate to the Junior British Football Association of WA.
In late July 1915, Keals and younger sibling Digory enlisted in the 28th Battalion. Together the brothers boarded HMAT A20 Hororata in Fremantle and spent two-months training in Egypt prior to arriving in France. Sixty-one days later, Keals was killed in action at Armentieres, aged 23. He was laid to rest in the nearby Erquinghem-Lys Churchyard Extension.
An ‘In Memoriam’ notice ran in The West Australian newspaper on the anniversary of Keals’ passing for close to a decade. The notice of 21 May, 1919. read:
In sad and loving memory of Private Frank Leslie Keals (Les.), who was killed on active service, May 21, 1916, in France. Too far away thy grave to see. But never too far to think of thee. Inserted by his loving mother, brothers Stan, Clay (Percy and Dig.) on active service, sisters Ethel, Connie and Gladys, brothers-in-law Alec. and Frank, niece Eileen, nephew Gordon, and chum Bill.
Â