Craven was the third and youngest son of
William Craven, 6th Baron Craven and his wife née
Lady Elizabeth Berkeley, daughter of the
4th Earl of Berkeley. His parents separated when Keppel was only three years old and his mother moved to
France with him, but it was under a promise to return him to his father when he was eight years of age. This condition was not fulfilled. They returned to England in 1791 to send Keppel to school at
Harrow under an assumed name, where, however, he was soon recognised by his likeness to her, and henceforth was called by his family name. His father died on 27 September 1791 and his mother in the following month married
Christian Frederick Charles Alexander, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. Craven was not by these events permanently estranged from his mother. Having received a considerable addition to his fortune, Craven in 1833 purchased a large convent in Penta, in the mountains near
Salerno, which he fitted up as a residence, and there received his visitors with much hospitality. He was for many years the intimate friend and inseparable companion of Sir
William Gell; he shared his own prosperity with his less fortunate comrade, cheered him when in sickness, and attended him with unwearying kindness, until Gell's death in 1836. Another of his acquaintances was
Lady Blessington, who arrived in Naples in July 1823; with her he afterwards kept up a correspondence, and some of the letters which he addressed to that lady are given in her
Life by
Richard Robert Madden. He died at Naples 24 June 1851, aged 72, being the last of a triumvirate of British literati, scholars, and gentlemen who resided there for many years in the closest bonds of friendship, namely, Sir
William Drummond, Sir William Gell, and the Hon. K. R. Craven. He was buried in the
English Cemetery in Naples. ==Works==