Wilfred Durham Keith

Wilfred Durham Keith was born in 1877 in Petrolia where his father, Admiral Nelson Keith, and uncles were involved in oil field development in Lambton County. Keith was never directly involved in the development of oil in Lambton County because his family moved to Galicia (modern Poland and Ukraine) in 1855 to join his father. However, the ten years that he spent working for Bergheim and McGarvey imparted him with the Canadian drilling expertise which made these men so sought-after for oil exploration around the world. 

In 1905, Keith left Bergheim and McGarvey to pursue a position in Romania with Internationale Rumeensche Petroleum Maatschappij, receiving a commendation from McGarvey which stated, "In expressing our regret at his departure, we gladly recommend him to anyone desiring the services of a conscientious and reliable man who has an excellent general knowledge of the petroleum industry." Keith then went on to work for Royal Dutch Shell in Constanta on the Black Sea until the First World War.

At the outbreak of war, his daughter Violetta was spending holidays visiting Holland with friends and would be separated from the rest of the family for the next four years with no communication. Keith, along with his second wife and two children, fled north and took refuge first in St. Petersburg and then in Finland and Sweden. The family was reunited in California, where Keith took a job in a refinery in 1919.

The international oil fields beckoned to Keith and he returned to work with Royal Dutch Shell in Constanta in 1923. It was here that he fell in love with Louise Mary Ernst who was almost 30 years his junior. He sought a divorce from Kate, his second wife, and married Louise in 1928.

Keith settled his new family near Vienna and spent the remainder of the years prior to the Second World War sorting affairs rather than being actively involved in oil exploration. He invested capital in oil operations in Austria and aided to clear up the VanSickle estate in Romania.   

The Second World War saw the Keith family on the retreat once again. Keith was well known in official circles through his work with Shell and in the consular service and was advised by friends to leave Romania immediately. His reputation would, however, prove advantageous while the family escaped to India as the family was frequently offered friendship and comfort by the British officials whom they met along the way. After a short stay in Bombay, the family was accommodated at a camp in Satara near Poona for almost five months. In May 1941, they travelled across India for four days to arrive in the little town on Naini Tal, a British hill station in the foothills of the Himalayas where they stayed for four years.

After the war, the family travelled to England where they would settle. Unfortunately, the oil fields in Romania were destroyed during the war and the fields of Austria provided no return on Keith's investment.