"Tony" Keswick arrived in the far east in 1926. He and his brother remained Directors of the firm after they had left the Far East. He was in charge of the Shanghai office (at that time the Head Office in the Far East) from 1935 until 1941. He was also Chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Council during the crises leading to the Pacific War. He was shot in the arm by a Japanese at a Municipal Election Meeting held on the Shanghai Racecourse in 1941. The company's chinese business interests were looted by occupying Japanese forces.
After the war he took over as Managing Director of Matheson & Co. Ltd, in London. Amongst his other business activities, he was Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, Director of the Bank of England, Vice-Chairman of Alliance Assurance, and Director of British Petroleum.