Julian Ross Metcalfe (L, 1974)

Julian Metcalfe, uncle of Anna Lomax (Ch, 2006) and Andrew Lomax (Xt, 2009), died on 29 July 2025, aged 69.

The following tribute has been provided by Julian’s family.

Julian was born in Malaysia, his father was in the Malay Civil Service. Within a few days he was flown to England (when the journey took nearly a week) for treatment of jaundice at Great Ormond Street Hospital, where he was baptised and given Holy Unction before an operation to remove his spleen. His father’s cousin looked after him for twelve months by which time his parents had relocated to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). They advertised for a passenger to Nairobi to take Julian with them. The family then drove back to what was Abercorn (now Mbala), on the edge of Lake Tanginika in the far northeast of what is now Zambia, where his father was District Commissioner. He remembered Dr Kenneth Kuanda visiting, as the country was preparing for independence, and playing the guitar to the family after dinner.

When the family visited England on home leave, and Julian was four, it was a foreign country to him – and the first time that he saw electricity. Initially home schooled in remote townships where his father was a District Commissioner, Julian was sent to boarding school, at the age of seven. After prep school at Horris Hill, near Newbury, he attended Cheltenham College, maintaining contact with his Housemaster Guy Dodd (Leconfield Housemaster 1973-1982) and his wife Helen, and friends from College for all his life.

Following a gap year with Project Trust in South Africa and Botswana, Julian read Politics and Economics at Bristol University where he was active in the student anti-apartheid movement. In later years he chaired the London Group Alumni Association, in addition to organising the annual carol service, for which he recruited interesting speakers, including a former Head of MI5. On graduation he was an Overseas Development Institute Fellow, returning to Africa as the economist in the Health Ministry in Lilongwe, Malawi, making new friends who would stay with him for the rest of his life. There he met Rachel Jones who was to become his wife. They married in November 1983.

Back in the UK, Julian undertook an MA in Development Economics at Sussex University and then entered the Government Economic Service attached to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. His first overseas posting was to Egypt. He subsequently joined the Diplomatic Service. In the 1990s the focus of his work switched to the Balkans: he was present at the negotiation of the Dayton Accords, establishing a framework for peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was a peace-keeper in Bosnia, Deputy Head of the Eastern Adriatic Department and Deputy Ambassador in Zagreb. He drove out to Zagreb planning, on arrival, to swap his tent for the Intercontinental Hotel only to be billeted out, as the towering hotel was deemed too easy a target for incoming shells. The city came under fire from Kraina three days later.

His daughter, Patricia, was born in 1997, one week after the end of his assignment in Zagreb. She paid a brief visit, aged seven weeks, to assist the packers before returning to the UK on a camping trip via Hungary, Slovakia, Eastern Poland, the Baltic States and Sweden. Julian always enjoyed a good camping trip (one involved a lion in Botswana and another snow in the Sinai Peninsular). Towards the end of his time in the FCO his economic skills were put to good use in Estates managing Foreign Office assets around the world, then, as the UK’s Delegate to the World Trade Organisation in Geneva, he carried out his last assignment.  

After retiring from the FCO, Julian worked with a charity (the IAPB International Association for the Prevention of Blindness) which raised money, especially government grants, for projects for the blind. This was of particular interest as Julian had lost the sight in one eye as a result of a car accident as a child. 

He subsequently worked in the security team of the Royal Academy and was the staff representative at a time when the security contract was switching from one company to another. During that switch most staff lost holiday pay worth hundreds of pounds. Julian held many meetings about this with Royal Academy and security company staff over several months but to no avail. Eventually he sent a letter headed, ‘Robbery at the Royal Academy’ to the Chief Executives of both companies and to the President and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy. Within days, the President of the RA had given instructions that the issue be resolved, and staff soon received the holiday pay owing to them. At the Royal Academy, Julian introduced Patricia both to art and security management. He was also a lay representative on Quality Care Commission inspections of care homes, hospitals and GP practices.

Julian loved to travel and met his second wife Alison on a coach trip to Versailles in 2019. They enjoyed cruises and trips together. Even when Julian knew his cancer was spreading during his last year, he travelled in Europe, South Africa and USA. He collapsed and died with a glass of whiskey beside him, in the First-Class lounge of Newark airport (which somehow seemed appropriate), as he prepared to return home, having achieved his ambition of a final overseas trip with his daughter Patricia.

He is greatly missed by all who knew him.