Biography

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), Baron Keynes and economist, was born in Cambridge on 5 June 1883, the son of Florence and Dr. John Neville Keynes, fellow of Pembroke College and later University Registrar. He was educated at Eton, and came up to King's College, Cambridge as a scholar in 1902. After he was awarded his undergraduate degree, he entered the Home Civil Service and served for two years at the India Office. He left the civil service in 1908, however, and in 1909 was elected a fellow of King's College and remained so until his death. He was lecturer in Economics from 1911 to 1937 and in 1919 he also accepted the post of Second Bursar of the college. In 1924 he began his memorable tenure as first bursar, changing completely the philosophy by which the college managed its assets, and in 1925, he married Lydia Lopokova. He served on a number of government committees in the 1920s and 30s, but - as with everyone else - it was during the two world wars that most was demanded of him. During World War I he became a civil servant in the Treasury and by 1917 had gained a position of some responsibility. He was the Treaury's representative at the peace conference that ended the war. At the invitation of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Keynes placed his services at the disposal of his country again in 1940, after war had broken out a second time. As an advisor to the treasury, he was much involved in both the problems of war finance and plans for the later transistion from war to peace. Among other things, Keynes acted as one of the negotiators of Lend-Lease, and played a leading part at the Bretton Woods conference. He was rewarded for his services during the first war with a C.B., and for those during the second by elevation to the peerage, becoming Baron Keynes of Tilton. He died on Easter Sunday, 21 April 1946, after several years of ill-health.

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