Randal Keynes

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Randal Keynes
Randal keynes.JPG
Randal Keynes in 2009
Born Randal Hume Keynes
(1948-07-29) 29 July 1948 (age 75)
Cambridge, England, UK[1]
Children 2, including Skandar Keynes

Randal Hume Keynes, OBE, FLS (/ˈknz/ KAYNZ; born 29 July 1948)[2] is a British conservationist, author and great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin.

Family background

Keynes was born in Cambridge. He is the son of the Hon. Anne Pinsent (née Adrian) and physiologist Richard Keynes.[2] His maternal grandparents were Hester Adrian, Baroness Adrian, mental health worker, and Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian OM PRS, 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. Randall Keynes is the brother of two Cambridge professors, Simon (historian) and Roger (medical scientist). Roger's daughter – Randall’s niece – is the Catholic writer and apologist Laura Keynes.[3]

Randall Keynes has two children with Zelfa Cecil Hourani, also from a prominent intellectual family, originally from Lebanon. Zelfa's father Cecil was an advisor to the late Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba and his two brothers were Albert, a major historian of the Middle East, and George, philosopher, historian, and classicist. Randall and Zelfa's son, Skandar Keynes (born 1991), is an actor best known for his role as Edmund Pevensie in the Narnia films. They also have a daughter, Soumaya Keynes (born 1989), who has appeared in various productions for BBC Radio 4.

Life and career

Keynes was educated at Marlborough College and New College Oxford. He is a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.[4]

He campaigned successfully against the redevelopment of Kings Cross Station and for the preservation of the Caledonian Road neighbourhood in central London. He recalls one of the turning points as his persuasion of two members of the House of Lords to ask the government to guarantee the funding of the project; when the ministers declined to, the bill fell.[5]

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.[6] The 2009 film Creation is based on this book.

He has taken a leading role in the campaign to have Down House, Darwin's former home, designated a World Heritage Site.[7]

He was the author of two Oxford Dictionary of National Biography articles on Anne Darwin and William Erasmus Darwin[8] in 2005.

Ancestry

Family of Randal Keynes
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
16. Dr. John Keynes
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
8. John Neville Keynes
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
17. Anna Maynard Neville
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
4. Sir Geoffrey Keynes
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
18. Rev. John Brown
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
9. Florence Ada Brown
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
19. Ada Haydon Ford
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2. Richard Keynes
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
20. Charles Darwin
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
10. George Darwin
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
21. Emma Wedgwood
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
5. Margaret Elizabeth Darwin
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
22. Charles Meredith du Puy
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
11. Maud du Puy
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
23. Ellen Reynolds
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1. Randal Keynes
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
24. Emperor Adrian
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
12. Alfred Douglas Adrian
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
25. Selina Anne Douglas
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
6. Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
26. Charles Howard Barton
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
13. Flora Lavinia Barton
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
27. Amelia Swaine
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3. Hon. Anne Adrian
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
28. Richard Steele Pinsent
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
14. Hume Chancellor Pinsent
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
29. Catherine Agnes Ross
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
7. Hester Agnes Pinsent
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
30. Rev. Richard Parker
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
15. Ellen Frances Parker
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
31. Elizabeth Coffin
 
 
 
 
 
 

See also

References

  1. https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVQT-PVJT
  2. 2.0 2.1 thePeerage.com - Person Page 11859
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  5. The Secret History of Our Streets, a 2012 BBC and Open University co-production, both a series of six hour-long television programmes (in which he is interviewed in episode 2, "Caledonian Road") and also a book.
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External links