Ronald Pritchard
Ronald Pritchard, Luxembourg, the son of a Welsh horticultural engineer Ronald Pritchard MBE (1925–2011). His mother, Germaine Pritchard, née Barbaut (1928–2023), was French. The father worked for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). His family first lived in Egypt from approximately 1966 to 1974. In September 2026 Ronald Pritchard writes: “We initially lived in Heliopolis, on the corner of Orouba Street, close to the Baron Empain Palace. During the war we were evacuated from Egypt as refugees to Italy, initially to Rome and then Rimini. When we returned to Cairo, we lived for a time in Al-Zahraa City, in a house which we were told was known as the “General’s House.” From there we moved to 13 Street 213 in Maadi, on the corner by Cairo American College. During my parents’ second period in Egypt, from approximately 1977/79, they lived at the CWGC head office in Heliopolis, next to the cemetery, in Sharia Nabil el Wakkad. By then I was at boarding school in the United Kingdom.” Pritchard junior conveys that his father’s position with the CWGC gave him an unusually wide network of official and personal contacts. His work and connections extended beyond Egypt to Libya and Sudan, and brought him into contact with the United Nations, diplomatic services, foreign embassies and military attachés, as well as senior Egyptian military and government circles: “As a child I remember occasions involving President Nasser and senior Egyptian military and civil officials. During my parents’ second period in Egypt, President Anwar Sadat and Jehan Sadat invited my parents to the first Cairo showing of Death on the Nile. My father was also among the official guests present when President Sadat was assassinated. My mother developed her own extensive network in Cairo. She was involved in local charitable activities, either with Sœur Emmanuelle and/or through French-speaking expatriate women involved in charitable work. One example of the circles in which my parents moved is that they were given a French Pointer which had originally been presented to the Sadats. Apparently the Sadats did not know what to do with the dog, and my mother subsequently took it. There are two other coincidences which struck me after reading more about Hassan Heshmat and his work. During our first period in Egypt, my parents’ closest friends included a French woman married to the then Ambassador of the Congo, who later became a political refugee in France. I was interested in this because of Heshmat’s connections and works outside Egypt. The second is more personal. When I eventually went to boarding school in England, it was St Augustine’s College, which was run by Benedictine monks. That caught my attention when reading about Heshmat’s religious and monumental work in Europe.”