Hector Jelf

Hector Gordon Jelf CBE (6 May 1917 – 11 December 1997) was an English first-class cricketer and British colonial official in Africa.

Hector Jelf

Personal information
Full name	Hector Gordon Jelf
Born	6 May 1917 Putney, Surrey, England
Died	11 December 1997(1997-12-11) (aged 80) St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, England
Batting	Right-handed
Role	Wicket-keeper
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1938	Oxford University
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 2 Runs scored 48 Batting average 16.00 100s/50s –/– Top score 35 Catches/stumpings 5/1
Source: Cricinfo, 16 May 2020

The son of Sir Arthur Selbourne Jelf,^[1] he was born at Putney in May 1917. He was educated at Marlborough College, before going up to Exeter College, Oxford.^[2] While studying at Oxford, he played first-class cricket for Oxford University in 1938, making two appearances against Yorkshire and a combined Minor Counties team.^[3] Playing as a wicket-keeper, he scored 48 runs, took five catches and made a single stumping.^[4]

After graduating from Oxford, he served in the Colonial Service in British West Africa. In the Second World War he was an emergency commission as a second lieutenant in the African Colonial Force in the first month of the war.^[5] Jelf resumed his duties in the Colonial Service after the war, holding a number of positions within the Nigerian colonial government, eventually rising to become the permanent secretary to the ministry of education from 1959–64.^[2] He was made a CBE in the 1962 New Year Honours.^[6] Jelf died in England at St Leonards-on-Sea in December 1997.