Stan Keon

Standish Michael "Stan" Keon (2 July 1915^[1] – 22 January 1987) was an Australian politician who represented the Australian Labor Party in the Federal Parliament from 1949 to 1955, having served previously in the State Parliament of Victoria.^[2]

Childhood

He was the third surviving son of Australian-born parents, Philip Tobyn Keon, a lorry driver, and his wife, Jane (née Scott). His Christian names were registered as Horace Stanley; Horace being the name of a brother who had died the previous year. He attended Roman Catholic schools in East Melbourne and Richmond, and later won a scholarship to attend Xavier College, but couldn't attend due to reduced family circumstances, which compelled him to start working at the age of 12.^[3]

Keon's November 1945 election to the electoral district of Richmond in the Victorian Parliament followed a bitter pre-selection contest between supporters of the political machine of John Wren on the one hand, and the "Catholic Social Studies Movement" of B.A. Santamaria on the other.^[4]

Keon won the House of Representatives seat of Yarra at the 1949 federal election, succeeding former Prime Minister James Scullin. Keon himself was widely seen as a future Prime Minister.^[5] In 1955, he and six other Victorian federal members were expelled from the Labor Party, as a result of the split in the party caused by the controversy surrounding the role of Industrial Groups within the ALP. In April 1955, the seven expelled Labor parliamentarians became founding members of the Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist), which was renamed the Democratic Labor Party in 1957.

Keon was narrowly defeated in Yarra by the Labor candidate, Jim Cairns; all of the other Labor defectors were defeated as well.^[6] He made four subsequent attempts to vanquish Cairns at succeeding federal elections, all of which were unsuccessful. He eventually had a spectacular falling-out with his controversial one-time ally, B. A. Santamaria.^[3]

Notes