Harry Keith

[1][2] Keith is credited with starting the process of large-scale conservation of the forests of North Borneo (now Sabah).

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.

[10] 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.

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).

[3] After formal retirement from service in British North Borneo in 1952, Keith held several temporary appointments.

In 1953, he joined the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, and was posted to the Philippines as instructor at the Timber Graders School in Manila.

In 1955 Keith became FAO Representative at Benghazi in Libya, and served six years as forestry adviser in the country.

This parasitic plant is the largest Rafflesia found in Sabah, with flowers reaching up to one metre in diameter.

Agnes wrote of the first incarnation of their collection of books and documents on Borneo and South East Asia, which they were forced to abandon to the occupying Japanese forces, in Three Came Home: "Harry's library of Borneo books, perhaps the most complete in existence, his one self-indulgence...".

The auction press release commented that "Many of these items are not listed in any institutional holdings, including the British Library, and may well be the only surviving extant copies".