The son of the Brigadier P. H. Keen,[1] he was born in British India at Kohat in March 1983.[citation needed] He came from a family of colonial administrators in India, with his grandfather and uncle both holding positions in the Indian Political Department.[2] Keen was educated in England at Haileybury, before attending the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. From there, he graduated into the Hampshire Regiment as a second lieutenant in January 1931,[3] with promotion to lieutenant following in January 1934.[4] He was appointed to the British Indian Army as an aide-de-camp to Sir Ralph Griffith, Governors of the North-West Frontier Province.[5][6] He was promoted to lieutenant in the British Indian Army October 1936,[7] with promotion to captain following in January 1939.[8] In India, Keen made a single appearance in first-class cricket for the Europeans cricket team against the Indians at Madras in the 1939–40 Madras Presidency Match.[9] Batting twice in the match, he was dismissed for a single run in the Europeans first innings by A. G. Ram Singh, while in their second innings he was dismissed without scoring by C. K. Nayudu.[10]
Keen was a member of the Indian Political Service during the Second World War, being assistant-director of the Intelligence Bureau at Quetta. In May 1943, he was appointed to be His Majesty's vice-consul at Bushehr.[11] He was made an MBE in the 1944 New Year Honours.[12] After the end of the war, he was promoted to major in December 1949,[13] having retired from the British Indian Army following Indian Independence. He was later made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1968 New Year Honours for his post-war work with the Foreign Office.[14] Keen later retired to Hampshire, where he died in March 1983. He was married to Anna Cunitia Gordon-Smith of Stansted Park, with the couple marrying at St James' Church in Emsworth in January 1958.[1]