Keeping, CJ

Captain Claude Jeffery Keeping

Claude was born on February 25^th 1884, the elder of two sons of solicitor Tom Keeping and his wife, Eveline. He joined Dulwich at the beginning of 1896,and was a pupil at the College for the next two and a half years, leaving in the summer of 1898 in order to go to Tonbridge. After finishing his education at the end of 1902, he later went on to work at the London Stock Exchange, a position he still held in the summer of 1914.

Shortly after the outbreak of hostilities Claude enlisted in the Artists Rifles before being given a commission in the Middlesex Regiment that same December. A posting in Gibraltar followed, before later in 1915 being transferred to Egypt where he took part in the Senussi Campaign. That December, whilst still in Egypt, he was made Assistant Provost-Marshal on General Peyton’s staff, a post he held for six months before being sent to France in May 1916. Shortly after his arrival on the Western Front he was promoted to Lieutenant, and subsequently went on to act as Trench Mortar Officer; it was whilst serving in this latter role that he was seriously wounded at Courcelette, on the Somme, in October 1916, and as a result invalided back home. After over a year spent in England recuperating, Claude returned to the continent in November 1917, at which time he was also appointed Captain. He was involved in much heavy fighting over the next nine months, before being killed in action whilst leading an attack at Croisilles, on August 24^th 1918. He was survived by his widow, Marjorie.