[5] Later friend Edward Senior reports that he could get "but the barest hint" of Keeling's academic work between his leaving school and the start of his university career in 1919, but suggests "it is fair to assume" that his education during that time, "with its leaning toward philosophy, was entirely self-directed.

[2] Senior reports that archival records from witnesses of The Society of Friends (of which Keeling was not himself a member) show him to have been incarcerated at Wormwood Scrubs on 2 February 1917 and, by 29 August of that year, at Dartmoor Prison.

[6] Internees were expected to work within the Centre, some sewing mailbags or, more commonly, on the moors, crushing grain or stone-breaking and carting granite at a quarry but enjoyed comparative comfort and relative liberty in return.

[6] Keeling, however, as "an absolutist i.e. one who refused any co-operation at all with the war effort" endured, as Senior recounts, "the harshest Military imprisonment" and resulting frail health.

[5] Thus Keeling came to the attention of the No-Conscription League (NCF) and its prestigious supporter Bertrand Russell who, Senior asserts, "doubtless.. was to some degree effective in urging a few exceptional privileges" for him.

After his death, Keeling would describe Hicks as a teacher "wholly engrossed in philosophy" who "firmly believed that it, as no other subject, could impart to his students an influence and a training such as would render them habitually reflective about their existence and destiny".

"[9] On completion of his BA Keeling was awarded (with Russell's support in solicitation) the John Stuart Mill Scholarship in Philosophy of Mind and Logic,[5] which is administered by UCL.

[2] The scholar's obituary in The Times noted that although philosophy was his "consuming passion from early adolescence" Keeling "found a second love in the wine and food and conversation of France".

)[9] In December 1925, Keeling received a testimonial letter from Russell – who described his knowledge as "remarkable for so a young man" and his D. ès L thesis as "a most scholarly piece of work" – to use in support for applications for lectureship positions.

[12][5] Declining a fellowship at Harvard University, in 1927 Keeling took up a position as a philosophy lecturer at UCL (which had awarded him a degree of Master of Arts with "mark of distinction" the previous year).