He was born on 20 February 1821, last descendent of the Keons, of Keonbrooke, County Leitrim, Ireland. Died at Bermuda on 3 June 1875. He was the only son of Myles Gerald Keon, barrister, and on his mother"s side was descended from the Fallons of Runnymede, County Roscommon.
On his return to England he studied law at Gray"s Inn, abandoning it shortly for literary pursuits.
An adventurous pedestrian tour across the European continent followed graduation, terminating in a brief service in the French army in Algeria. In 1843 he published "The Irish Revolution, or What can the Repealers do? And what shall be the New Constitution?" ("Tablet", IV, 532), and in 1845 a vindication of the Jesuits (Oxford and Cambridge Review, September, 1845), a controversial article that provoked more than passing interest. The results of his pedestrian tour and military service were apparent in a series of contributions to Colburn"s "United Service Magazine" (from September, 1845 to October, 1846).
Foreign a few months in 1846 he became editor of "Dolman"s Magazine", and on 21 November of that year, married Anne de la Pierre, daughter of an English army officer
In 1847 appeared his "Life of Saint Alexis, the Roman Patrician". Foreign the next twelve years he served on the staff of The Morning Post, becoming its representative at Saint St. Petersburg in 1850.
In 1852 his first novel, Harding, the Money-Spinner, appeared, serially, in the London Journal, and in 1856, on the occasion of the coronation of Alexander II of Russia, he was again at Saint St. Petersburg representing The Morning Post. On this occasion he met Boucher de Perthes, in whose reminiscences Keon is pleasantly appreciated.
On his return in 1859 from Calcutta in British India, where he had been sent "under a mistaken arrangement" to edit the "Bengal Hurkaru", he was appointed colonial secretary at Bermuda, a position which he held until his death.
In 1866 appeared "Dion and the Sibyls, a romance of the First Century". The year following, at Mechanics" Hall, Hamilton, he gave a course of lectures on "Government, its Source, its Form, and its Means", declining subsequently to lecture in the United States on account of his official position. He attended the opening of the First Vatican Council at Rome in 1869.
