{{Short description|British diplomat (1923–2023)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2016}} {{Use British English|date=January 2016}} thumb|right|Brown in 1967. '''Sir Mervyn Brown''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCMG|OBE}} (24 September 1923 – 28 September 2023) was a British ambassador and historian of Madagascar.
==Life and career== Mervyn Brown was born on 24 September 1923. He was educated at Murton, where his parents lived,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sunderlandecho.com/lifestyle/retro/retro-wearsider-captured-1-2161980 |title=Retro: Wearsider captured |newspaper=Sunderland Echo |date=18 October 2010}}</ref> then Ryhope Grammar School and St John's College, Oxford. He served with the Royal Artillery 1942–45 and joined the Diplomatic Service in 1949. After serving at Buenos Aires and at the UK mission to the United Nations in New York, in 1960 he was appointed consul in Vientiane, Laos,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=42185 |date=4 November 1960 |page=7462}}</ref> and deputy to the ambassador (John Addis). He later wrote a memoir of his experience of the Laotian Civil War, including a month spent as a prisoner of the Pathet Lao.
Brown was Ambassador to Madagascar 1967–70,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=44478 |date=19 December 1967 |page=13951}}</ref> High Commissioner to Tanzania and concurrently Ambassador to Madagascar (this time non-resident) 1975–78,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=46898 |date=13 May 1976 |page=6825}}</ref> and High Commissioner to Nigeria and concurrently Ambassador to Benin 1979–83.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=48055 |date=3 January 1980 |page=63}}</ref>
Brown was appointed OBE in the 1963 New Year Honours,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=42870 |supp=y |date=28 December 1962 |page=21}}</ref> and {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CMG}} in the 1975 New Year Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=46444 |supp=y |date=31 December 1974 |page=4}}</ref> He was knighted KCMG in the 1981 New Year Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=48467 |supp=y |date=30 December 1980 |page=4}}</ref> He was an ''Officier'' of the ''Ordre National'' of Madagascar. He was a patron of the charity Money for Madagascar.<ref>[https://www.moneyformadagascar.org/english/who-we-are.asp?idSMenu=2 Our Patrons] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613074824/http://www.moneyformadagascar.org/english/who-we-are.asp?idSMenu=2 |date=13 June 2015 }}, Money for Madagascar</ref>
Sir Mervyn Brown died on 28 September 2023, four days after his 100th birthday.<ref>{{cite news |title=Sir Mervyn Brown KCMG, OBE |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/births-marriages-and-deaths-october-6-2023-nmbtxpzgs |access-date=6 October 2023 |work=The Times |date=6 October 2023}}</ref>
==Publications== *[https://books.google.com/books?id=hC1mQgAACAAJ ''Madagascar Rediscovered: A History from Early Times to Independence''], 1978. {{ISBN|0950628409}} *[https://books.google.com/books?id=15kPAQAAMAAJ ''A History of Madagascar''], 1995. {{ISBN|1558762922}} *[https://books.google.com/books?id=LvS81_0DI1kC ''War in Shangri-La: A Memoir of Civil War in Laos''], 2001. {{ISBN|1860647359}}
==References== {{Refbegin}} *[http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U9044 BROWN, Sir Mervyn], ''Who's Who 2016'', A & C Black, 2016 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2015) {{Refend}} {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0014%2FDOHP%2018 Interview with Sir Mervyn Brown] & [https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/media/uploads/files/Brown.pdf transcript], British Diplomatic Oral History Programme, Churchill College, Cambridge, 1996 *{{NPG name|name=Sir Mervyn Brown (1923–), Diplomat}}
{{S-start}} {{S-dip}} {{s-bef |before=Alan Horn}} {{S-ttl |title=Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Tananarive |years=1967–1970}} {{S-aft |after=Timothy Crosthwait}} {{S-bef |before=Arthur Kellas}} {{S-ttl |title=High Commissioner to Tanzania |years=1975–1978}} {{S-aft |after=Peter Moon |rows=2}} {{S-bef |before=Timothy Crosthwait}} {{S-ttl |title=Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Democratic Republic of Madagascar |years=1975–1978}} {{S-bef |before=Sir Sam Falle |rows=2}} {{S-ttl |title=High Commissioner to Nigeria |years=1979–1983}} {{S-aft |after=Sir Hamilton Whyte |rows=2}} {{S-ttl |title=Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Cotonou |years=1979–1983}} {{S-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Mervyn}} Category:1923 births Category:2023 deaths Category:Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Benin Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Madagascar Category:British Army personnel of World War II Category:British men centenarians Category:British expatriates in the United States Category:British expatriates in Argentina Category:British expatriates in Laos Category:British male writers Category:British people imprisoned abroad Category:High commissioners of the United Kingdom to Tanzania Category:High commissioners of the United Kingdom to Nigeria Category:Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Prisoners and detainees of Laos Category:Royal Artillery officers Category:20th-century British historians