Sir Colville Deverell

Biographical Information

Colville Deverell (died in 1995). "Educated at Portora School in Ulster, and Trinity College Dublin (for whom he played both cricket and tennis), he arrived in Kenya in 1931 as a district officer and spent his first seven year in the Colonial Service in some of the more remote districts which gave him his love and understanding of Africa.

"In 1941 he was seconded to the Civil Affairs branch of East African Command, working throughout what is now Somalia and in Ethiopia, and reaching the rank of Colonel. ...

"On his return to Kenya in 1946 he was made Secretary of the important Authority for Post War Development and Reconstruction, and then in 1949 became Administrative Secretary. In this capacity he was primarily responsible for the planning and organisation of the visit to Kenya of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1952, which ended so tragically with the death of King George VI. That same year Deverell was transferred to Jamaica as Colonial Secretary...

"Deverell retired from the Colonial Service in 1962, but very soon his great ability to get on with people at all levels and of different backgrounds, and to reconcile conflicting views, was harnessed in the cause of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, of which he became the first Secretary-General in 1964. He went to India as chairman of the UN (FP) mission in 1965, the first of many such UN visits to different parts of the world. He retired from the IPPF in 1969...

"Colville Montgomery Deverell, colonial administrator: born 21 February 1907; Clerk to Executive and Legislative Councils 1938-39; Civil Affairs Branch, East Africa Command 1941-46; OBE 1946, GBE 1963; Secretary, Development and Reconstruction Authority, Kenya 1946-49, Administrative Secretary 1949-52; Colonial Secretary, Jamaica 1952-55; CVO 1953; CMG 1955, KCMG 1957; Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Windward Islands 1955-59; Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Mauritius 1959-62; Secretary-General, International Planned Parenthood Federation 1964-69; married 1935 Margaret Wynne Willson (two sons, and one son deceased); died Wokingham 18 December 1995."