Lieutenant-Colonel Bob Keane
Lake Superior Regiment

It is very difficult to speak upon an occasion like this; one just doesn’t know what can possibly be said about the boys that are gone. I was with the unit when we received our first casualty on the continent and have been with you ever since. It gets tougher and tougher as time goes on accepting these casualties. With the memory of our comrades still fresh, let us remember the mothers, wives, sweethearts and families of the boys, and do what we can to lighten their load.

(Keane, war diary, 18 March 1945)

Born on 14 May 1914 in Fort William, Ontario, Robert Angus Keane was a hockey player, real estate agent and a commissioned officer in the Lake Superior Regiment since 1935. He became battalion adjutant after mobilization in 1940 and went overseas with the Cameron Highlanders in 1941. Although he rejoined the LSR in January 1942 when it converted to motorized infantry, he went to the United States for parachute training while the regiment embarked for England.

An accident put an end to his training, and Keane transferred to general staff duties in Ottawa. He went overseas in November 1943 to be staff officer with 2nd Division headquarters. He finally rejoined the LSR as second-in-command in May 1944 just as the 4th Division prepared for deployment to Normandy.

When Lieutenant-Colonel J.E.V. Murrell was relieved of command on 9 August 1944, Keane took over the Lake Superiors during the heavy fighting to close the Falaise Gap. He led the regiment with high distinction until the end of the war and earned the Distinguished Service Order:

Lt-Col Keane was always at the spot where pressure was, for the moment, most severe, inspiring his offrs and men. He so coord[inated] the efforts of his subunits as to give the impression that the was being attacked by vastly superior forces. The engagement accounted for a total of two hundred and ninety enemy killed and two hundred and fifty prisoners … By his sterling example and brilliant direction, this offr inculcated in every man his own unflagging resolve to close with the enemy and destroy him.

Keane relinquished command to Lieutenant-Colonel H.H.A. Parker in May 1945 and returned to Canada. In the July Ontario election, he contested the riding of Fort William for the Progressive Conservatives. Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert Cook, the original commanding officer of the Lake Superiors also ran for the party in neighbouring Port Authur. Both colonels lost to the CCF incumbents. Keane thereafter joined the regular army.

He trained and commanded 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment during the Korean War for which he was made Officer of the Order of the British Empire:

Under Lieutenant-Colonel Keane’s leadership, it has completed every task given to it. In action, Lieutenant-Colonel Keane has shown great leadership and courage. He has always been found with his forward troops, advising them, encouraging them and directing their efforts towards the attainment of their objective, without regard to his own safety.

He later served as director of military training and retired from the army in 1965.

Keane died in Ottawa on 16 August 1977.