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My friend and colleague Colin Perchard, who has died aged 85, spent 47 years in the British Council, ultimately serving as minister (cultural affairs) in India and director across south Asia.

During Colin’s time in Delhi, the British Council promoted partnerships between India and the UK in education, science and technology and the arts. Colin’s most visible achievement was a huge cultural programme celebrating 50 years of Indian independence to coincide with the state visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1997, during which she made him CVO.

Colin was born in occupied Jersey to farmers Win (nee Horn) and Bill Perchard. He attended Victoria college there and then, as the first in his family to go to university, studied history at Liverpool, graduating in 1963. Determined to work in postcolonial Africa, he joined the British Council and was posted to Malawi as an assistant representative in 1964. There he met Elisabeth Jones, and they married in 1970.

They were briefly posted to Calcutta (now Kolkata) before, following the end of the Bangladesh liberation war, Colin was sent in 1972 to open a new British Council office in Dhaka, in his first post as director. This was the first in a series of new British Council centres enthusiastically developed by Colin: the following year came South Korea, and then, in 1980, newly independent Zimbabwe, where I first worked with him. For the difference Colin made to educational and cultural life in Zimbabwe following years of racism and war, he was appointed OBE in 1985.

In each posting, Colin’s defining legacies were the programmes for change he created, and the lasting connections he made with people of all kinds. He and Lis were a tremendously effective partnership in developing a warmth and appreciation for the UK across the world.

On retirement in 2000, Colin dived back into the cultural life of Jersey and was trustee of several international and local organisations. An autoimmune disease deprived him of his mobility, but never his optimism and joy for life. A big man, with a big mission to improve lives, Colin was a huge personality in every way, and his laugh rang out till the end.

He is survived by Lis and their sons, Nick, Jonty, and Adam.