Lives in Cricket No 28 - Keith Carmody

9 Introduction whose deaths in the intervening period have left many gaps in knowledge, especially about Keith’s years in Sydney before and after the Second World War. But while uncertainties surround such basic facts as his workplace outside cricket after he left school in 1935, the public record and slivers of information from younger relatives clarify the way cricket provided escape from an impoverished, dysfunctional family situation in Depression-era Sydney. Evidence from later periods reveals a man of diverse skills and interests ranging widely beyond the cricket field. Though no personal correspondence – beyond a few postcards to a sister in 1942 – survives, his PoW ‘Log’ provides invaluable insights into his personality, without, however, giving conclusive proof that his 11 months in Stalag Luft III and as a reluctant guest of the Soviet Army left him with the severe psychological scars suggested by some contemporaries. There’s no denying that alcohol was the major factor contributing to a broken marriage and perhaps to his early death at the age of 58. But published indications that drink wasn’t a problem until well after the Second World War suggest that a rift with West Australian cricket authorities may partly explain why he finally succumbed to a curse that consumed his father, brothers and many other relatives. The sadness of his final years in Sydney should not obscure the way he had earlier overcome desperate disadvantages of heredity and childhood environment.