Geoffrey Charles Tasker Keyes was the oldest son of Admiral of the Fleet, Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baron Keyes, a British naval hero of the First World War and the first Director of Combined Operations during the Second World War, and Eva Mary Salvin (nee Bowlby).

He was born on 18th May 1917 in Aberdour, Aberdeenshire and attended King's Mead School in Seaford, Sussex, then Eton and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

Geoffrey Keyes was commissioned into the Royal Scots Greys; saw action at Narvik and was later attached to No. 11 (Scottish) Commando, which was sent to the Middle East as part of Layforce, an ad hoc military formation formed by Colonel Robert Laycock (hence the name) and consisting of approximately 2,000 men which served in the Middle Eastern theatre of operations.

Initially tasked with conducting raiding operations to disrupt Axis lines of communication in the Mediterranean, it was planned that they would take part in actions to capture the Greek island of Rhodes. It also saw action in Bardia, Crete, Syria and Tobruk before they were disbanded in August 1941.

Following the allied invasion of Syria on 8th June 1941, No. 11 Commando was sent to successfully lead the crossing of the Litani River in Lebanon, fighting against troops of the Vichy French Vichy, during which Keyes played a leading part and was awarded the Military Cross as a result.

He also assumed command of the unit following the death of its commanding officer who was killed during the action. 11 Commando returned to Cyprus, then to Egypt in August 1941, where Keyes, was authorized to retain 110 volunteers which, in the Autumn, was involved in Operation Flipper, a plan to assassinate Erwin Rommel.

Keyes, at the time, was the youngest acting lieutenant colonel in the British Army and had been present throughout the planning stage, selecting the most hazardous task for himself: the assault on the supposed headquarters of the Afrika Korps in a house near Beda Littoria on the coast of Libya.

Following a disastrous landing by submarine, where over half the raiding party and their equipment failed to get ashore, the men had to endure an exhausting approach in torrential rain. Details of the next few minutes now become confused.

One report states that Keyes tried to enter the house but was confronted by a sentry with whom he struggled in the doorway until the guard was shot by his second-in-command.

Surprise lost, Keyes, his second-in-command and a sergeant entered the building but Keyes suddenly felt faint; collapsed and shortly after a confused period inside the house, Keyes' body was carried outside by his men and left.

Another “official” version is that Keyes opened the door to a nearby room, found Germans inside, closed it again abruptly, reopened it to hurl in a grenade and was shot by one of the Germans.

However, it later transpired that only one round was fired by the Germans during the whole raid on the HQ. Y

et another possible explanation for Keyes’ death was that his fellow Commando, Captain Robin Campbell, fired several rounds at the sentry, one of which probably (or may have) hit Keyes and led to his death a few minutes later.

The men retreated to a position from which they were later taken prisoner and the second-in-command also had to be left since he was shot in the leg by one of his own men.

Despite this debacle, Keyes was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the citation reading:

“War Office, 19th June, 1942. The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the posthumous award of the VICTORIA CROSS to the undermentioned officer: — Major (temporary Lieutenant-Colonel) Geoffrey Charles Tasker Keyes, M.C. (71081), The Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons), Royal Armoured Corps (Buckingham).

"Lieutenant-Colonel Keyes commanded a detachment of a force which landed some 250 miles behind the enemy lines to attack Headquarters, Base Installations and Communications. From the outset Lieutenant-Colonel Keyes deliberately selected for himself the command of the detachment detailed to attack what was undoubtedly the most hazardous of these objectives—the residence and Headquarters of the General Officer Commanding the German forces in North Africa.

"This attack, even if initially successful, meant almost certain death for those who took part in it.

"He led his detachment without guides, in dangerous and precipitous country and in pitch darkness, and maintained by his stolid determination and powers of leadership the morale of the detachment. He then found himself forced to modify his original plans in the light of fresh information elicited from neighbouring Arabs, and was left with only one officer and an N.C.O. with whom to break into General Rommel's residence and deal with the guards and Headquarters Staff.

"At zero hour on the night of 17th–18th November, 1941, having despatched the covering party to block the approaches to the house, he himself with the two others crawled forward past the guards, through the surrounding fence and so up to the house itself. Without hesitation, he boldly led his party up to the front door, beat on the door and demanded entrance.

"Unfortunately, when the door was opened, it was found impossible to overcome the sentry silently, and it was necessary to shoot him. The noise of the shot naturally aroused the inmates of the house and Lieutenant-Colonel Keyes, appreciating that speed was now of the utmost importance, posted the N.C.O. at the foot of the stairs to prevent interference from the floor above.

"Lieutenant-Colonel Keyes, who instinctively took the lead, emptied his revolver with great success into the first room and was followed by the other officer who threw a grenade.

"Lieutenant-Colonel Keyes with great daring then entered the second room on the ground floor but was shot almost immediately on flinging open the door and fell back into the passage mortally wounded.

"On being carried outside by his companions he died within a few minutes.

"By his fearless disregard of the great dangers which he ran and of which he was fully aware, and by his magnificent leadership and outstanding gallantry, Lieutenant-Colonel Keyes set an example of supreme self-sacrifice and devotion to duty.” 

Since war, however, it has been pointed out that Keyes' VC citation was written by Colonel Laycock, who was not an eye-witness to the events, and is at odds with the accounts of the survivors of the raid, and with German statements.

It was also stated that “there is scarcely anything in the citation that is verifiably true”. Indeed, the post-mortem conducted by the Germans showed that he had in fact been killed accidentally by one of his own men and that “the operation grew out of Keyes' desire to achieve the heroic status of his father”.

It was later ascertained that the house was not Rommel's HQ but a supply centre that he seldom, if ever, visited; he had, in fact, been in Italy at the time of the attack.

However, on Rommel's orders, Keyes was buried with full military honours in a local Catholic cemetery but his body was later moved to Benghazi CWGC War Cemetery.

He is remembered on the King's Mead School War memorial in Seaford, Sussex and also in the parish church in the village of Tingewick in Buckinghamshire, home of the Keyes family.

His VC is on display in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum, London.