Person    | Female  Born 1875  Died 1960

Lady Eleanor Keane

Categories: Children, Social Welfare

Pioneer in youth work. Born Eleanor Lucy Hicks-Beach, eldest daughter of 1st Earl St Aldwyn. On Valentine's day 1907, just 2 months before laying the foundation stone, she married the Irishman Sir John Keane (1873 -1956) and went on to have 1 son and 3 daughters. At the same period she was Chair of the St Mary’s Girls' Club Building Sub-Committee responsible for the 1907 building in Union Street. That Wikipedia link has a photo which may show Eleanor but since it claims to show two of Sir John's sons we don't trust it!

1931 The Sydney Morning Herald reports her organising an exhibition of embroidery in London. Chairman of the National Association of Youth Clubs 1924-1939. There is a Nerine flower named for her.

From Sisterhood or Surveillance? She was President of the National Council of Girls' Clubs and present at a 1937 international rally of physical culture in Hamburg ("Strength Through Joy"). Our photo comes from that document and is captioned "Girls' club members at a physical culture rally, Hamburg, 1938" so it seems possible that the lady in the dark suit behind the second row might be Lady Eleanor. Otherwise we refer you to the 3 photographic portraits of her with her 3 sisters (1923-31) held by the National Portrait Gallery, which, as we type, are "not currently available".

Her 12 December 1960 Times obituary doesn’t give many facts but makes it clear she was an important figure over a long period of time.

The plaque refers to 'our sisters': Eleanor had 3 sisters and perhaps her husband also had sisters, but that we cannot discover. Perhaps it was a nod to the suffrage movement? We think it probably just refers to the girls who belonged to the girls' club which used the building.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Lady Eleanor Keane

Commemorated ati

Lighthouse mission - Keane

To the honour & glory of God and in love of our sisters this stone was la...

Read More

Other Subjects

Mary Tourtel

Mary Tourtel

Author and artist. Born Mary Caldwell. She studied art and became a children's book illustrator. Her husband Herbert Tourtel, was news editor of the Daily Express. In 1920 the newspaper was looking...

Person, Art, Children, Literature

1 memorial
Geoffrey Looker

Geoffrey Looker

Killed, aged 5, in the Downhills shelter WW2 tragedy, 19 September 1940.

Person, Children

War dead non-military, WW2
1 memorial
Eton Mission and Eton Manor Clubs

Eton Mission and Eton Manor Clubs

The private boys school Eton College launched a scheme to provide social and religious support to people living in Hackney Wick and to familiarise privileged schoolboys with social conditions in de...

Place, Children, Community / Clubs, Religion, Sport / Games

4 memorials
Peggy Jones

Peggy Jones

One of the 11 "children of England" present on 7th July 1933 when The Princess Royal laid a foundation stone for a nurses home for the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

Person, Children

1 memorial
Idris Alfred Newnham

Idris Alfred Newnham

From Ian Wallis's JustGiving page: "It was Idris Newnham, a boy about my age and a family friend, who had a particular type of muscular dystrophy (Duchenne), which is a genetic disorder that causes...

Person, Children

1 memorial