Sir Ronald Henry Melville, KCB (9 March 1912 – 4 June 2001) was an English civil servant. Educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, he entered the civil service in 1934 as an official in the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

. For much of the Second World War, he was

private secretary A private secretary (PS) is a civil servant in a governmental department or ministry, responsible to a secretary of state or minister; or a public servant in a royal household, responsible to a member of the royal family. The role exists in ...

to the Secretary of State for Air. In 1960, he moved to the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

and in 1964 he was appointed Second Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence."Sir Ronald Melville", ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' (London), 8 June 2001, p. 25. . He then served as Permanent Secretary of the

Ministry of Aviation The Ministry of Aviation was a department of the United Kingdom government established in 1959. Its responsibilities included the regulation of civil aviation and the supply of military aircraft, which it took on from the Ministry of Supply. ...

from 1966 to 1967, when it was merged into the

Ministry of Technology The Ministry of Technology was a department of the government of the United Kingdom, sometimes abbreviated as "MinTech". The Ministry of Technology was established by the incoming government of Harold Wilson in October 1964 as part of Wilson's am ...

; Melville was then Secretary with responsibility for aviation matters."New Civil Service Appointments", ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', 16 October 1970, p. 32. . In 1970, he was appointed Permanent Secretary of the

Ministry of Aviation Supply Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian ...

, serving until it was abolished in 1971.H. B. Boyne, "Four Ministers in Whitehall Reshuffle", ''

'', 8 April 1971, pp. 1, 30. . An excellent shot, from 1972 to 1984 he was chairman of the National Rifle Association; at the same time, he was a council member of the Army Cadet Force Association. His translation of

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into En ...

's '' De Rerum Natura'' was published in 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melville, Ronald 1912 births 2001 deaths English civil servants Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge Knights Companion of the Order of the Bath People of the National Rifle Association