Raymond Eustace Grant Govan,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(known more often as R.E. Grant Govan and also as REG Govan; December 1891, in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

district – 26 January 1940, in Hardwar, United Provinces) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

industrialist based in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

and the first President of the

Board of Control for Cricket in India The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the principal national governing body of the sport of cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at the Cricket Centre in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. BCCI is the wealthiest governing body ...

Career

He was the Managing Director of Govan Bros. Ltd., a leading business house of the time.Page 22 The company was managing agents for a number of industrial enterprises. Grant Govan was a keen pilotPage 61 and the founder of

Indian National Airways Ltd Indian National Airways Ltd was an airline based in Delhi, India.Page 15 The founder of the airline was R. E. Grant Govan, a Delhi based British industrialist who also co-founded the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Cricket Club ...

, an aviation company formed in 1933 under Govan Bros Ltd.Page 105 Apart from the airline, Govan Bros operated ''Delhi Flour Mills'', set up ''Sugar Mills-Raza Buland'' at

Rampur, Uttar Pradesh Rampur ( ; ISO: ''Rāmapura''; formerly Mustafabad) is a town and the municipality headquarter of Rampur District in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was formerly known for its various industries, like sugar refining and cotton milling. It ...

, and had a travel department, Govan Agencies (the Govan Bros Ltd businesses were sold in 1947 to the Ramkrishna Dalmia led

Dalmia Group Dalmia Bharat Limited (DBL) is an Indian conglomerate, which traces its origins to the businesses established by brothers Ramkrishna Dalmia and Jaidayal Dalmia in eastern India in the first half of the 20th century. In the 1930s, the group me ...

). Apart from the airline, Govan had other interests in aviation, like the ''Delhi Flying Club'' which he founded in 1928. Govan was an avid sports enthusiast.Page 92 He founded the ''Roshanara Cricket Club'' in Delhi, named after the nearby tomb of

Roshanara Begum Roshanara Begum (); 3 September 1617 – 11 September 1671) was a Mughal Empire, Mughal princess and the third daughter of Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, and a poet. She was a partisan of her younger brother, Aurangzeb, and ...

, with a group of friends in 1922. The club was officially inaugurated by

Marquess of Reading Marquess of Reading is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1926 for Rufus Isaacs, who had been Member of Parliament for Reading between 1904 and 1913, before serving as Viceroy of India and Lord Chief Justice of Eng ...

in December 1922.Page 821 Govan had the distinction of being both the founding President of the

(BCCI) in 1928, a position he held till 1933 and the

Cricket Club of India Cricket Club of India (CCI) is a cricket club located on Dinsha Wacha Road, in Churchgate of Mumbai, India. It was conceived as India's counterpart to the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). It is considered one of the most prestigious clubs in the na ...

(CCI) in 1933.Page 44 He, along with then BCCI secretary Anthony De Mello, was instrumental in getting the BCCI affiliated to the ''Imperial Cricket Conference'' (now

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...

) in 1928.Page 103 In 1931 BCCI with Govan at its helm invited the

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

to tour India for the first time, with the support of

Lord Irwin Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax (16 April 1881 – 23 December 1959), known as the Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and the Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was a British Conservative politician of the 1930s. He h ...

, the then

Viceroy of India The governor-general of India (1833 to 1950, from 1858 to 1947 the viceroy and governor-general of India, commonly shortened to viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom in their capacity as the Emperor of ...

.Page 4 When he died in 1940, Dr. P. Subbaroyan, then President of the (BCCI), issued a statement which read "In the death of Mr. Grant Govan, Indian Cricket has lost a friend ...".Page 196 After his death, a few of his friends set up the ''Grant Govan Memorial Homes'' in Delhi. These are meant to be retirement homes for

Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people are a distinct minority group, minority community of mixed-race British and Indian ancestry. During the colonial period, their ancestry was defined as British paternal and Indian maternal heritage; post-independence, "Angl ...

s with limited means and were inaugurated by Marchioness of Linlithgow, wife of the then ''Viceroy of India'' in October 1940.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Govan, R. E. Grant 1891 births 1940 deaths People from Croydon British people in colonial India English cricket administrators Indian cricket administrators Aviation history of India Businesspeople from Delhi Presidents of the Board of Control for Cricket in India Commanders_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire