Keith Harris was born in Landi Kotal, Peshawar, Bengal in India, the younger son of Sergeant Major Frank Harris, 2^nd Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders, and Rosamond Kathleen Harris..  He was baptised in Peshawar on 19 November 1923.  In the 1939 Register he was listed as a scholar at Clayesmore School, Iwerne Minster, Shaftesbury in Dorset.

He joined the Royal Navy as a Temporary Midshipman, RNVR on 7 May 1943.  He was promoted to Temporary Acting Sub Lieutenant on 1 September 1943.  In April 1944 he was serving in the Submarine Depot Ship HMS FORTH. Keith Harris volunteered for ‘Special Service’ and was appointed to HMS VARBEL, formerly the Kyles Hydro Hotel at Port Bannatyne on the Isle of Bute, and trained as a charioteer.

On 26 July 1944 he was the No. 1 Crewman of Chariot No. LXXVII when he was killed – having hit the keel of the Submarine Depot Ship HMS BONAVENTURE whilst making a dived approach during a training exercise in Loch Cairnbawn.  His No. 2 Crewman, Able Seaman Hutton, was able to maintain control of the Chariot and get clear of BONAVENTURE and regain the surface but before Keith Harris could be cut out of his diving suit he was already dead.

Keith Harris of The Grove, Whitecraigs, Renfrewshire, Scotland named his Next of Kin as his father Frank Harris, OBE, then a Lieutenant Colonel in the Seaforth Highlanders.  He was buried at sea with full naval honours and is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial on Panel 88 Column 1, on the 12^th Submarine Flotilla memorials at Rothesay on the Isle of Bute and at Kylesku, and on the Harris family grave at Newton Mearns, Renfrewshire.