Randal Hume Keynes, OBE, FLS ( ; 29 July 1948 – 3 March 2023) was a British conservationist, author, and great-great-grandson of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

Family background

Keynes was born in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, England. He is the son of the Hon. Anne Pinsent (née Adrian) and physiologist Richard Keynes. His maternal grandparents were Hester Adrian, Baroness Adrian, mental health worker, and

Edgar Adrian Edgar Douglas Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian (30 November 1889 – 4 August 1977) was an English electrophysiologist and recipient of the 1932 Nobel Prize for Physiology, won jointly with Sir Charles Sherrington for work on the function of neuron ...

, 1st Baron Adrian, electrophysiologist and recipient of the 1932 Nobel Prize for Physiology. His paternal grandfather was the surgeon Geoffrey Keynes, brother to the economist

John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist and philosopher whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originall ...

. Randal Keynes is the brother of two Cambridge professors, Simon (historian) and

Roger Roger is a masculine given name, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic languages">Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") ...

(medical scientist). Randal Keynes has two children with Zelfa Cecil Hourani, also from a prominent intellectual family, originally from Lebanon. Hourani's father, Cecil, was an advisor to the late Tunisian president

Habib Bourguiba Habib Bourguiba (3 August 19036 April 2000) was a Tunisian politician and statesman who served as the Head of Government of Tunisia, prime minister of the Kingdom of Tunisia from 1956 to 1957, and then as the first president of Tunisia from 1 ...

, and his two brothers were Albert, a major historian of the Middle East, and George, philosopher, historian, and classicist. Randal and Zelfa's son, Skandar Keynes (born 1991), is a political advisor and former actor best known for his role as

Edmund Pevensie Edmund Pevensie is a fictional character in C. S. Lewis's ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' series. He is a principal character in three of the seven books (''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'', '' Prince Caspian'', and '' The Voyage of the Dawn T ...

in the Narnia films. Their daughter, Soumaya Keynes (born 1989), is an economics journalist and has hosted podcasts for

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

and

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

Life and career

Keynes was educated at

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. It was founded as Marlborough School in 1843 by the Dean of Manchester, George ...

and

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

, where he earned a degree in English with a concentration in Icelandic literature. He was a distinguished supporter of

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent Irreligion in the United Kingdom, non-religious people in the UK throug ...

. He campaigned successfully against the redevelopment of King's Cross station and for the preservation of the Caledonian Road neighbourhood in

central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning the City of London and several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local gove ...

. He recalls one of the turning points as his persuasion of two members of the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

to ask the government to guarantee the funding of the project; when the ministers declined to, the bill fell.

The Darwin connection

Keynes is the author of the intimate exploration of his famous ancestry, ''Annie's Box'', subtitled ''Darwin, His Daughter, and Human Evolution'' (2001), a book about the relationship between Darwin and his daughter Annie, whose early death deeply affected him. The 2009 film '' Creation'' is based on this book. He has taken a leading role in the campaign to have

Down House Down House is the former home of the English Natural history, naturalist Charles Darwin and his family. It was in this house and garden that Darwin worked on his theory of evolution by natural selection, which he had conceived in London befor ...

, Darwin's former home, designated a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

. He was the author of two ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

'' articles on Anne Darwin and

William Erasmus Darwin William Erasmus Darwin (27 December 18398 September 1914) was the first-born son, and the eldest of all the children of Charles Darwin, Charles and Emma Darwin, and the subject of Psychology, psychological studies by his father. Life He was ed ...

in 2005.

Ancestry

References

External links