Sir Ronald Herbert Garvey KCMG

Order of St Michael and St George

The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....

 KCVO

Royal Victorian Order

The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognising distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, any members of her family, or any of her viceroys...

 MBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (4 July 1903 – 31 May 1991) was a colonial administrator.

Career

Garvey joined the colonial service and was appointed Governor of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in 1944. He moved on to be Governor of British Honduras in 1949; there he had to contend with a general strike

General strike

A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...

 and the need to devalue the local currency. He launched one of the first credit union

Credit union

A credit union is a cooperative financial institution that is owned and controlled by its members and operated for the purpose of promoting thrift, providing credit at competitive rates, and providing other financial services to its members...

s in British Honduras in order to protect poorer people from loan shark

Loan shark

A loan shark is a person or body that offers unsecured loans at illegally high interest rates to individuals, often enforcing repayment by blackmail or threats of violence....

s. He then served as Governor of Fiji

Governor of Fiji

Fiji was a British Crown Colony from 1874 to 1970, and an independent dominion in the British Commonwealth from 1970 to 1987. During this period, the Head of State was the British Monarch, but in practice his or her functions were normally exercised locally by the Governor prior to independence ,...

 from 1952, where he demonstrated his considerable public relations

Public relations

Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....

 skills, until his retirement in 1958.

In retirement he became Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man

Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man

The Lieutenant Governor is the representative on the Isle of Man of the Lord of Mann . He/she has the power to grant Royal Assent and is styled His Excellency. In recent times the Governor has either been a retired diplomat or senior military officer...

: he launched major initiatives there in the early 1960s to increase tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 including the establishment of a new casino

Casino

In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...

 and promoting the local tax incentives. He also sent the Home Office

Home Office

The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

 a Manx cat

Manx (cat)

The Manx cat , formerly often spelled Manks, is a breed of domestic cat originating on the Isle of Man, with a naturally occurring mutation that shortens the tail...

 to replace the one they had lost. He subsequently wrote a book entitled Gentleman Pauper published in 1983. He is buried in Wrentham

Wrentham, Suffolk

Wrentham is a village in the north-east of the English county of Suffolk. Wrentham is located about 2 miles from the coast along the A12 trunk road...

 cemetery in Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

.