Name
Douglas Scrivenor Howard Keep (MC)
17 June 1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
14/07/1917
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
Bedfordshire Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Military Cross
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
RENINGHELST NEW MILITARY CEMETERY
III. F. 26.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN AND IN THE MORNING WE REMEMBER THEM
UK & Other Memorials
Abbots Langley Village Memorial, St. Lawrence Church Memorial, Abbots Langley, Langleybury Village Memorial, Hunton Bridge, Memorial Wall, Wadham College, Oxford, Oxfordshire
Pre War
Douglas Keep was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on 17 June 1893, the son of John and Agnes Keep and one of four children. His father had been born in Birmingham, England and his mother in Newark, Nottinghamshire, England. It is not known what took his father to New Zealand, where Douglas’s brother Leslie and sister Gladys were born.
By 1899 the family was back in England and living in Birmingham, and at the time of the 1901 Census his father was working as the Secretary for Collieries, and living at Front Street, Treeton, St Helens, Lancashire. By 1911 the family had moved on once again and were living at “Brookfield” in Gallows Hill Lane, Abbots Langley. At this time his father John Keep was living on Private Means, and the household was serviced by three servants. In 1911 17 year old Douglas was away boarding at Leighton Park School, at Shinfield, Reading. He progressed to Wadham College, Oxford University where for two years he was a member of the Officer Training Corps, rowed for his College, gained a BA degree and the Royal Humane Society’s Medal for Life Saving.
Wartime Service
He joined up at the outbreak of war and was gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Bedfordshire Regiment on 16 September 1914, serving in France from 1 August 1915 with the 7th Battaliion. He was promoted to the rank of Captain on 4 November 1916.
He fought in the Battle of the Somme from 1 July 1916, and further actions on the Somme at Thiepval, the Schwaben Redoubt and the Ancre, and in 1917 served during the Battle of Arras.
Following the attack on the Schwaben Redoubt on 27 September 1916, he was awarded the Military Cross. The citation which appeared in the London Gazette on 24 November 1916 noted “He organised and led repeated bombing attacks on the enemy strong points. On one occasion, with only three men, and no bombs he remained in close proximity to the enemy for one and a half hours”. His brother, Howard, also a Captain with the 7th Battalion, Bedfordfordshire Regiment, was also awarded a Military Cross and Lance Corporal Jesse Whittaker, also from Abbots Langley was killed in action on 27 September 1916, serving with the 7th Bedfordshires.
Douglas was killed by a shell whilst supervising the burying of cables on the western edge of Zillebeke Lake near Ypres on the night of 14/15 July 1917. His body was recovered and buried with full military honours on 16 July at Reninghelst New Military Cemetery, Belgium.
Biography
Additional Information
His mother received pay owing of £148 3s 5d. She also obtained probate of his estate in London on 3 May 1918 with effects of £307 0s 8d.
The Abbots Langley Parish Magazine in August 1917 reported an extensive obituary for Douglas Keep. The report commenced with
“It is with the greatest sorrow that we put on record the death of Captain Douglas Howard Keep, and we offer our sympathy to Mrs Keep in this terrible trouble that has befallen her”.
His brother Leslie Howard Keep went on to command the 7th Bedfordshires and was later promoted to Major. Douglas’ younger brother, Norman joined up later in the war as a Gunner in the Royal Field Artillery. Both brothers survived the war. All three brothers were mentioned in the Langleybury Parish Magazine throughout the war, and were all included in the Langleybury Roll of Honour which was compiled at the end of the war, however his brother Leslie was killed by an avalanche in Switzerland in 1922 and is buried in Abbotts Langley Cemetery.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
