Kenneth Alexander Keith, Baron Keith of Castleacre (30 August 1916 – 1 September 2004) was a British

businessman A businessperson, also referred to as a businessman or businesswoman, is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial ...

and

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

. Keith was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in the 1969 Queen's Birthday Honours ListCharles Mosley, editor, ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage,'' 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 2, page 2124. and was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

as Baron Keith of Castleacre, ''of

Swaffham Swaffham () is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District and England, English county of Norfolk. It is situated east of King's Lynn and west of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of and in the U ...

in the

County of Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and east, Cambridgeshire to the west, a ...

'' on 6 February 1980. He presided over the mergers that formed the British merchant bank

Hill Samuel Hill Samuel is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group's Offshore Private Banking unit. It was formerly a leading British merchant bank and financial services firm before the takeover by TSB Group Plc. in 1987, which itself merged with ...

, and also chaired

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

after the company's receivership and subsequent nationalisation in 1971, helping to organise the recovery of the

RB211 The Rolls-Royce RB211 is a British family of high-bypass turbofan engines made by Rolls-Royce. The engines are capable of generating of thrust. The RB211 engine was the first production three-spool engine and turned Rolls-Royce from a signif ...

project. After retiring from those chairmanships in 1980 he was chairman of

STC STC may refer to: Education * Saint Theresa's College (disambiguation), any of several institutions * St. Thomas' College, Matale, Sri Lanka * S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia, Sri Lanka * Scott Theological College, Kenya * Sha Tin College, H ...

and of Beecham.

"We (Rolls-Royce) added a zero to his stature; he used to think £5 million a lot of money, but after a few weeks on the RB211 he came to understand that £50 million is peanuts." –
Stanley Hooker Sir Stanley George Hooker, CBE, FRS, DPhil, BSc, FRAeS, MIMechE, FAAAS (30 September 1907 – 24 May 1984), was an English mathematician and jet engine engineer. He was employed first at Rolls-Royce where he worked on the earliest design ...
."World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines – 5th edition" by
Bill Gunston Bill Gunston (1 March 1927 – 1 June 2013) was a British aviation and military author. He flew with Britain's Royal Air Force from 1945 to 1948, and after pilot training became a flying instructor. He spent most of his adult life doing researc ...
, Sutton Publishing, 2006, p. vii

References

1916 births British bankers 2004 deaths Knights Bachelor Conservative Party (UK) life peers Life peers created by Elizabeth II {{Life-peer-stub