Melville Guest

Melville Richard John Guest OBE (born 18 November 1943) is a British former diplomat and first-class cricketer.

Melville Guest
Personal information
Full nameMelville Richard John Guest
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm medium
Relations
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1964–1966Oxford University
1961–1966Wiltshire
1964Somerset 2nd XI
First-class debut10 June 1964 Oxford University v Hampshire
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 23
Runs scored 576
Batting average 16.94
100s/50s 0/2
Top score 77
Balls bowled 1798
Wickets 22
Bowling average 40.09
5 wickets in innings 0
10 wickets in match 0
Best bowling 2/25
Catches/stumpings 10/–
Source: CricketArchive, 11 March 2011

He was born in what was then Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, two weeks after the death of his father, Ernest Melville Charles Guest, a RAF pilot who was killed in action over the English Channel.[1] He was educated at Rugby School and Magdalen College, Oxford,[2] where he played cricket for the University from 1964–1966 and earned a Blue. In the Varsity Match of 1965, Guest and his fellow batsman Mike Groves were barracked by the crowd for slow scoring, with 15 consecutive maiden overs bowled by the two Cambridge spinners.[3] He was elected President of Vincent's Club in 1966.[4]

He entered the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1966, with a first posting to Tokyo in 1967. After a tour of duty in Paris, he temporarily left the FCO and was managing director of Lucas France from 1980 to 1985. He was then a director of the Channel Tunnel Group before returning to the FCO in Tokyo in 1986 as commercial counsellor. His last overseas posting was as political counsellor and consul general in Stockholm. He returned to the UK as head of the South Pacific department and then head of the South East Asia department. He left the FCO to become chief executive of Asia House, during which time he also took the role of executive director of the UK-Korea Forum for the Future and of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group. He was also the secretary of the UK-India Round Table.[5] He was a senior advisor for corporate and external affairs to Imperial College, London, 2005–13.[2]

He was appointed OBE in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to Britain's relations with Asia.[6][7]

References
  1. "Service Aviation" (PDF). Flight: 25. 6 January 1944.
  2. GUEST, Melville Richard John, Who's Who 2017, A & C Black, 2017 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2016)
  3. "Other Matches at Lord's, 1965". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1966 ed.). Wisden. p. 337.
  4. "Vincent's Club Presidents". Vincent's Club, Oxford.
  5. "Mr Melville Guest, OBE". Debretts. Archived from the original on 30 August 2012.
  6. "Queen's Birthday Honours 2007" (PDF). bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  7. "No. 58358". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 June 2007. p. 24.
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