Richard Wildman Kettlewell (1910–1994) was a colonial agricultural officer who spent all his colonial career in Nyasaland (present day Malawi) apart from three years of wartime army service. He became Director of Agriculture in 1951 and Secretary for National Resources then Minister of Lands and Surveys between 1960 and 1962. He was influential in the late colonial administration of Nyasaland, and responsible for the introduction of several controversial agricultural and land-use policies that were highly unpopular with African farmers and which he accepted had promoted nationalist sentiments in the protectorate. After leaving Nyasaland in 1962 shortly before its independence, he settled in the Cotswolds for the remainder of his life and undertook part-time consulting work on tropical land use.
Early life Richard Wildman Kettlewell was born on 12 February 1910 to George Wildman Kettlewell and Mildred Frances Kettlewell (born Atkinson); he had one brother, John Robert Wildman Kettlewell. Kettlewell was educated at Clifton College, Bristol and Reading University, where he read agriculture. After graduating, he joined the Colonial Agricultural Service and undertook postgraduate training in tropical agriculture at Cambridge University and the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in Trinidad, now part of the University of the West Indies. After successfully completing his training, Kettlewell was posted to Nyasaland in 1934, and served in different parts of the protectorate from 1934 to 1940. In 1935, he married Margaret Palmer (died 1990), who he had met while studying in Reading, and they had two children, Michael George and Alison Victoria. Kettlewell was a member of the King's African Rifles Reserve of Officers in Nyasaland, 1938-1939. During World War Two he served with the 1/2nd Battalion, King's African Rifles in British Somaliland, Ethiopia and Kenya against Italian forces until 1942. During 1942, his battalion was transferred to Ceylon with the 21st East Africa Brigade, part of the 1st (African) Division, and he served there in 1942 and 1943.
Later career After his war service, Kettlewell returned to the Nyasaland Agricultural Department, occupying several senior posts, from 1943 to 1950. At this point in his career, further promotion would normally have involved a move to another colony, to gain greater experience. He was offered a transfer to Uganda and a teaching post at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in Trinidad. However, the Governor of Nyasaland, Sir Geoffrey Colby wished to retain his services and promoted him to be Deputy Director of Agriculture in 1950 so he could become Director of that department in 1951, and an ex officio member of the legislative council. He was appointed as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1955 in recognition of his services as Director of Agriculture for Nyasaland. In addition to his membership of the legislative council, between 1957 and his retirement in 1962, Kettlewell served as a member of the Nyasaland Executive Council, which advised the governor. He was appointed Secretary, National Resources in 1960, and was described as "one of the most influential civil servants in the late colonial period" by the historian Kalinga. In the 1961 elections in which the Malawi Congress Party gained a majority of seats in the legislative council, a new executive council was formed in the expectation of a transition to independence. As Hastings Banda, the Congress leader wished to assume the important National Resources portfolio, Kettlewell became Minister of Lands and Surveys from 1961 to 1962. He regarded independence with disfavour and retired in 1962 after the British Government had agreed that Nyasaland would become self-governing with Banda as its prime minister in 1963, and left the country. On his return from Nyasaland, Kettlewell and his wife moved to the Cotswolds, where he lived for the remainder of his life. Between 1962 and 1980, Kettlewell undertook part-time consulting work for Hunting Technical Services, applying his expertise in tropical land use, mainly in South-East Asia, gradually easing into full retirement. During this period, he wrote 'Agricultural Change in Nyasaland: 1945-1960', which summarises his views on the problems facing colonial agriculture in that country and period. Richard Wildman Kettlewell died on 17 November 1994.
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