Sir Richard Edmonds Luyt 1915 - 1994

Richard Edmonds Luyt born on 8 November 1915 in Breda Street, Cape Town, South Africa, the second of the three children of Richard Robbins Luyt (1886-1967), broker, and his wife, Roberta Wilhemina Frances, née Edmonds (1891-1943). His forebears were Cape farmers. He grew up to be an excellent cricketer and rugby player. He obtained a Rugby Blue at the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. During World War II he fought against the Italians in Ethiopia and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. He led Haile Selassie into Addis Ababa after it was liberated from the Italians. After the war he joined the Colonial Service becoming a District Officer in Northern Rhodesia and subsequently senior labour officer in the Copper Belt. In 1953 he was transferred to Kenya as their labour commissioner, and thereafter was appointed Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Labour and Lands, and Secretary to the Cabinet. In 1962 he returned to Northern Rhodesia as Chief...