Henry George Keith Jr., nicknamed "Harry", was born in 1899 in
New Plymouth,
New Zealand. His father was born in
Kentucky around 1868 to a Scottish father and an American mother born in
West Virginia. Harry's mother, Agnes Emma Beale, was born in
Ashwell, Herefordshire, England, in 1856. Keith grew up in
New Zealand before being sent abroad to be schooled in England and then in
California. He served in the
United States Navy in the
First World War, and then took a degree at the
University of California, Berkeley (B.Sc. 1924). In 1925, Keith was appointed the Assistant Conservator of Forests for the government of North Borneo (now Sabah) under the
Chartered Company, based at
Sandakan, and was promoted to Conservator of Forests in 1931, and later again to Director of Agriculture and Wildlife. He was also Honorary Curator of the Sandakan Museum. In 1934, Keith married
Agnes Newton (1901-1982), an American who was later to become a celebrated writer. Keith had been a friend of Agnes' brother, Al, when both boys had been at the same school in
San Diego. Keith had first met Agnes when she was eight years old and he was two years older. Keith had not seen Agnes in ten years when he visited California while on leave in 1934. They fell in love and married three days later. She accompanied him to North Borneo. During the Japanese occupation of Borneo in World War II Keith was imprisoned at
Berhala Island near Sandakan and then in
Batu Lintang internment and POW camp near Kuching in
Sarawak, as were Agnes and their infant son George. Agnes later wrote a book on their wartime experiences,
Three Came Home, which was also made into a film. After a short period of recuperation in Canada, Keith resumed his position as head of the Department of Agriculture in British North Borneo (1946-1952). Keith is credited with starting the process of large-scale conservation of North Borneo's forests. Throughout his career Keith collected plants for scientific study. His collections are now housed in the
Natural History Museum and
Kew Gardens in London, the Herbarium Bogoriense at
Bogor Botanical Gardens in Indonesia, and the Herbarium of the Forest Department at Sandakan, Sabah. All but one of his wife Agnes’ books are autobiographical and detail the family's life in the various countries in which they lived. Keith and Agnes retired to British Columbia, where they died within a few months of each other in 1982. In 1984, a new species of
Rafflesia endemic to Sabah,
Rafflesia keithii, was named in Keith's honour. This
parasitic plant is the largest
Rafflesia found in Sabah, with flowers reaching up to one metre in diameter. In addition,
Dryobalanops keithii, a heavy hardwood tree, and
Randia keithii, a shrub or small tree in the genus
Randia were also named after Keith. ==
Newlands==