Dates

• Existence: 1887 - 1982

Biography

Sir Geoffrey Langdon Keynes (1887-1982), surgeon, bibliographer and literary scholar, was born in Cambridge on 25 March 1887. His brother was John Maynard Keynes, later Lord Keynes. Geoffrey went to school at Rugby, before entering Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1906, to study natural sciences. He trained at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I. After the war he became part of the surgical team at Bart's, where he was appointed assistant surgeon in 1928. During World War II he was consulting surgeon to the R.A.F., and was made acting Air Vice-Marshal in 1944. He retired from Bart's in 1952, and received a knighthood in 1955. Keynes wrote many bibliographies and biographies. The subjects of his works include Jane Austen, Rupert Brooke, John Donne, John Evelyn, William Harvey, William Hazlitt, Siegfried Sassoon, Izaak Walton and, in particular, William Blake. His work on Thomas Willis remained uncompleted at his death. Keynes was also a great admirer of ballet, and wrote his own ballet, Job, with music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, which was first performed by the Camargo Society in 1931.