Keith Oswald Clyde ABSON

Keith Oswald Clyde ABSON Update Details

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ABSON, Keith Oswald Clyde

Service Number:	VX21285
Enlisted:	3 June 1940
Last Rank:	Private
Last Unit:	2nd Mobile Entertainment Section
Born:	Yarraville, Victoria, Australia, 11 June 1912
Home Town:	Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Labourer
Died:	Ferntree Gully, Victoria, Australia, 29 September 1988, aged 76 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery:	Emerald (Avonsleigh) Cemetery, Victoria
Memorials:

World War 2 Service

3 Jun 1940:	Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, VX21285
20 Oct 1940:	Embarked Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, VX21285, 2nd/5th Field Ambulance, ex Melbourne for Middle East
26 Dec 1944:	Transferred Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, 2nd Mobile Entertainment Section, 11 Australian Concert Party - New Guinea
27 May 1945:	Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, VX21285, 2nd Mobile Entertainment Section, Australian Entertainment Unit - 11 Australian Concert Party
27 Aug 1945:	Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, VX21285

Help us honour Keith Oswald Clyde Abson's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Keith was the fourth of six children of Albert Burridge Abson (b1880 in Mt Korong, Victoria) and first wife Jane Ann Oats (b1889 in Melbourne, Victoria). Albert - a Photographer - and Jane married in 1906 at Wdderburn in the Grampians, Victoria. They settled in the region and raised their family - Albert later became a Watchmaker. Following Jane's death in 1921, Albert remarried and had a further four children.

Keith left school at 13 years of age and worked as a Farm Labourer to help feed the family. Keith wrote in his Biography 'The Magician Dreams' that those years taught him 'to be tough and sleep out in all weathers and go without food, and travel and mix with all sorts of people and how to entertain those people in all sorts of conditions'. He joined 'The Incomparable Sloggetts' - travelling caravan-magicians, keeping a scrabook of articles, photographs, letters and guidance notes on how to perform magic tricks - the scrapbook went everywhere with him, including the Middle East and New Guinea when he was serving in the Australian Army.

In 1939 keith married Mavis Thomson Smart (b1912 in Ararat, Victoria) - Mavis was a Clerk. In June 1940 Keith enlisted with the Australian Army (Private; Service No:VX21285) and served with 2/5th Field Ambulance in the Middle East (20 October 1940 - 28 March 1942). He was in New Guinea (10 August 1942 - 6 February 1944) when he transferred to the Australian Entertainment Unit 11 Concert Party, and was part of the New Guinea Magic Convention. Keith was Discharged in 1945. Brothers Colin Reginald (Leading Aircraftman; Service No:18523) and Ralph Theodore Clifford (Private; Service No:D301335) served in WWII as did Brothers-in-Law Lionel William Thomson Smart (Private: Service No:VX21876), Stuart Henry Thomson Smart (Private; Service No:NX34281) and William John Downie (Leading Aircraftman; Service No:59750).

Returning from the War, Keith travelled Australia-wide with his magic show 'The Palace of Magic' and was involved in numerous magic clubs. In the 1970s he was President of the Australian Magicians' Club and wrote 'Harlan's Magic Circle' and 'The Magician's Dreams' - Gems of Magic'.

Keith died in 1988 and Mavis in 1995.

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