| R. E. Grant Govan | |
| Birth Date: | December 1891 |
| Birth Place: | Croydon district |
| Death Date: | 26 January 1940 |
| Death Place: | Haridwar |
| Office1: | 1st President of BCCI |
| Term Start4: | 1928 |
| Term End4: | 1933 |
| Predecessor4: | Office established |
| Successor4: | Sikandar Hayat Khan |
Raymond Eustace Grant Govan, CBE[1] (known more often as R.E. Grant Govan and also as REG Govan; December 1891, in Croydon district[2] – 26 January 1940, in Hardwar, United Provinces)[3] was a British industrialist[4] based in Delhi and the first President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
He was the Managing Director of Govan Bros. Ltd., a leading business house of the time.[5] The company was managing agents for a number of industrial enterprises. Grant Govan was a keen pilot[6] and the founder of Indian National Airways Ltd, an aviation company formed in 1933 under Govan Bros Ltd.[7] [8] Apart from the airline, Govan Bros operated Delhi Flour Mills, set up Sugar Mills-Raza Buland at Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, and had a travel department, Govan Agencies (the Govan Bros Ltd businesses were sold in 1947 to the Ramkrishna Dalmia led Dalmia Group).[9] Apart from the airline, Govan had other interests in aviation, like the Delhi Flying Club which he founded in 1928.[6]
Govan was an avid sports enthusiast.[10] He founded the Roshanara Cricket Club in Delhi, named after the nearby tomb of Roshanara Begum, with a group of friends in 1922. The club was officially inaugurated by Marquess of Reading in December 1922.[11] Govan had the distinction of being both the founding President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 1928, a position he held till 1933 and the Cricket Club of India (CCI) in 1933.[5] [12] He, along with then BCCI secretary Anthony De Mello, was instrumental in getting the BCCI affiliated to the Imperial Cricket Conference (now International Cricket Council) in 1928.[13]
In 1931 BCCI with Govan at its helm invited the Marylebone Cricket Club to tour India for the first time, with the support of Lord Irwin, the then Viceroy of India.[14] When he died in 1940, Dr. P. Subbaroyan, then President of the (BCCI), issued a statement which read "In the death of Mr. Grant Govan, Indian Cricket has lost a friend ...".[15] After his death, a few of his friends set up the Grant Govan Memorial Homes in Delhi. These are meant to be retirement homes for Anglo-Indians with limited means and were inaugurated by Marchioness of Linlithgow, wife of the then Viceroy of India in October 1940.[16] [17]