Mervyn Stuart-Smith
Mervyn Stuart-Smith (1927 – 2021) was born on 28th January 1927 to Beatrice and Gilbert Smith in Frenchay, near Bristol and had a younger sister Margaret. Mervyn’s early life was impacted by the Second World War and the death of his mother at the age of fourteen. Following his National Service in the Royal Armoured Corps, Melvyn gained a degree from Nottingham University. After university Mervyn secured a job at Downing College, Cambridge. His second year’s training was spent at the College of Tropical Agriculture in Trinidad. After marrying Josie Stuart on 16th July 1954 at the Parish Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Thurmaston, Leicester, Mervyn was appointed as an Agricultural Adviser with the Colonial Agricultural Service. Mervyn and Josie lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and for ten years in Tuaran, Sabah, North Borneo. Josie and Mervyn’s first son Ben was born in Malaysia and Jonathan, after returning to the UK. Mervyn re-trained as a technical teacher at Wolverhampton before securing a job in 1967 at the Francis Jeeps College in Cambridge where he worked until he was sixty. Mervyn also lectured in other colleges in East Anglia and he became an examiner in Tropical Agriculture for the Cambridge University Examination Board. Other than his passion for cricket, Mervyn enjoyed the Arts, reading and gardening.
