23154 Private Austin Bernard Keens was a 22 year old woodsman from Riviere du Loup, Quebec with pre-war service in the Canadian Militia with the 8th Regiment (Royal Rifles) when he attested into the 12th Battalion at Valcartier in September 1914.
He was part of one of the reinforcement drafts to the 15th Battalion that arrived in early May 1915 to replace the losses the battalion had suffered at 2nd Ypres in April. He was posted to No. 3 Company, fought at Festubert in late May and was with the battalion in the Ploegsteert-Hill 60 area during the fall, winter and spring of 1915-1916. He was another one of the casualties from the action at International Trench near Hill 60 when on April 28th he suffered a fatal GSW to the head. Like those other Highlanders KIA during that engagement, Private Keens was buried in Woods Cemetery.
NOK: Son of Mr. P. B. Keens, of Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec.
