David Lindsay Keir was born on 22 May 1895, the elder son of Rev. William Keir. He was educated at Glasgow University and New College, Oxford, where, in 1921, he gained a 1st Class Honours degree in the School of Modern History. From 1921 to 1939, he was a Fellow of University College, Oxford, and during this he period was first Dean and then Estates Bursar of the College. He was University Lecturer in English Constitutional History from 1931 until 1939, when he was appointed President and Vice-Chancellor of the Queen's University, Belfast. In 1949, he became Master of Balliol College, Oxford, from which office he retired in 1965. Public service in many fields included work in connection with hospital administration and development both in the Oxford area and in Ulster. He married Anna Clunie in 1930, daughter of R.J. Dale of Montreal, and they had a son and a daughter.

Keir was knighted in 1946 and received many honorary degrees, including a DCL from the University of Oxford (1960). At Oxford, he also received honorary fellowships from University, Balliol, and New Colleges, and was an Honorary Fellow and Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Sir Keir died on 2 Oct 1973.

Between 1954 and 1963, Keir was involved with the work of the Advisory Committee on Colonial Colleges of Arts, Sciences and Technology (ACCCAST), which had been formed in 1949. In Jul 1957, ACCCAST was reconstituted so that it could continue to provide services for colleges in independent countries of the Commonwealth: it became the Council for Overseas Colleges of Arts, Science and Technology (COCAST).

In 1954, Keir was appointed Chairman of ACCCAST and in the same year he became ACCCAST (later COCAST) representative on the Council of the Royal Technical College of East Africa (1954-1963). In Feb 1959, he was also COCAST representative at the official opening of the Singapore Polytechnic by H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh. Keir ended his service on COCAST by undertaking, in 1962, a journey to East Africa, Rhodesia (Zambia and Zimbabwe), Khartoum, and Malta to report on the progress of twenty-seven universities, colleges, and other educational institutions.

In addition to his work for ACCCAST and COCAST, Keir was Chairman of the 1953 Commission on Medical Education in Malaya, led two Working Parties on Higher Education in East Africa (1955, 1958), was an Adviser to the Iraqi Government on the constitution of the University of Baghdad (1956), and took part in a visitation to review the progress and advise on the development of the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology (1959). Keir was also Chairman of a Survey of Technical and Commercial Education in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) (1960), and a member of the Provisional Council of the University of East Africa (1962-1963).