John Rutherford Parkin Postlethwaite, CBE (1933), was born in 1883. Between 1909 and 1932 he worked for the Colonial Civil Service in the Uganda Protectorate; he was Provincial Commissioner in Buganda Province and was also a member of the Uganda Executive Council.
During the First World War, Postlethwaite worked for the Ministry of Food as a Deputy Divisional Food Officer in the London division. During the Second World War, he was a Divisional Food Officer in the South-Eastern Division (1940-1942) and in London (1942-1944). He also worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (1944-1945).
As well as being a lecturer, author and director of various companies, Postlethwaite was also a member of the Council of the Royal African Society (1945) and Trustee of the R. Hussey Slave Charity. He died in 1956.
From the guide to the Papers of John Rutherford Parkin Postlethwaite, 1909-1932, (The Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House)
