the Gold Coast (modern Ghana), and Spurway volunteered to fly one to Egypt, spending a week flying over the Sahara Desert, Chad and Sudan. He became the commander of the Middle East Photographic Interpretation Unit in Cairo, and then moved to Italy to join the Advanced Headquarters of the Desert Air Force, where he commanded the Photographic Intelligence Cell. He was involved in the resettlement of refugees in Austria. By the end of the War, he held the rank of Wing Commander, and had been mentioned in dispatches and received the OBE. He was captain of the Desert Air Force cricket team when it toured England in 1945. Post-war career He returned to Cyprus after leaving the RAF, returning to the civil service and becoming chairman of the Nicosia Race Club. He returned to London in 1950, serving in the Colonial Office, administering the Marshall Plan. He was posted to Malaya in 1952, and became head of the Malayan Borneo Defence Secretariat. He won a trophy playing tennis in Malaya. He was then posted to Singapore staying in the Raffles Hotel. He played cricket for Singapore against Malaya. He retired from the civil service in 1953, and returned to England to become a partner in a management consultancy firm, Urwick Orr, where he advised companies in the steel and brewing industries. He became an executive director at United Breweries in 1963, and took many other directorships in the drinks industry. He also served as deputy chairman and chief executive of the steel foundry and engineering group, Lake & Elliot. Later life He retired to the West Country in 1976. He enjoyed country sports. On one occasion, he shot 250 pheasants at one stand with one gun; another time, he caught a salmon weighing 32 lb. He had also hunted big game in Africa, and enjoyed fast cars, driving an Aston Martin. In 1998, he visited Anuradhapura in north Sri Lanka. He married twice. He first married Margaret Plowden-Wardlaw in 1937 and later to Jenna. He was survived by his second son Richard and stepson Johnny Halliday. Following the death of Frank Shipston on 6 July 2005, Spurway was thought to be the oldest surviving county cricketer, and, at the time of his death, the last person alive to have played county cricket in the 1920s. Notes References Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 2 November 2007 "Seven Days in Cricket: Hero of