He was the eldest son of the Governor-General of Australia and Minister for Transport John Baird, 1st Viscount Stonehaven and Ethel Sydney Keith-Falconer, 11th Countess of Kintore.

Robert Alexander Greville Baird of the Royal Air Force (who married Dorviegelda Malvina MacGregor, eldest daughter of Alexander Ronald MacGregor and a descendant of Rear Admiral Sir Malcolm Murray-MacGregor, 4th Baronet and Hugh McDonnell, 4th Earl of Antrim); Lady Annette Baird (wife of Michael Henry Mason, only son of James Francis Mason of Eynsham Hall and Lady Margaret Lindsay, only daughter of James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford); Lady Ariel Baird, a Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone (who married Kenneth Keith, Baron Keith of Castleacre); and Lady Ava Baird (wife of Ronald Chance, eldst son of Walter Lucas Chance of Millgreen House).

His maternal grandparents were Algernon Keith-Falconer, 9th Earl of Kintore and the former Lady Sydney Charlotte Montagu (the eldest daughter of George Montagu, 6th Duke of Manchester and, his second wife, Harriet Sydney Dobbs, fifth daughter of Conway Richard Dobbs).

During the Second World War, he joined the Royal Marine Engineers and rose to the rank of Major.

From 1947 to 1952, Lord Stonehaven lived in South Africa when he returned to manage the family estate at Rickarton.

The following year, Lord Stonehaven legally changed his name from Baird to Keith by Interlocutor of the Lyon Court on 28 June 1967.

[1] Through his daughter Lady Diana, he was a grandfather of four, including: Richard Ian Holman-Baird of Ury and Lochwood (b.