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. Keynes 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 the First World War. After the war, he became part of the surgical team at Bart's, where he was appointed assistant surgeon in 1928. During the Second World War, he was consulting surgeon to the R.A.F., and was made acting Air Vice-Marshal in 1944. Keynes retired from Bart's in 1952, and received a knighthood in 1955. He died at Brinkley, Cambridgeshire, on 5 July 1982.
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.
From the guide to the Sir Geoffrey Keynes: Papers, 1905-1959, (Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives)
