Roger Holloway OBE (24 November 1933 – 31 October 2010) had many occupations during a colourful life, including: soldier, big game hunter, international wine and spirit merchant and Anglican priest. He was the youngest of six children of a civil servant. His family had a military tradition.
He was brought up in Blackheath and educated at Eastbourne College. For his National Service he was a platoon commander in Kenya during the emergency. After that he was assistant to a professional big game hunter.
He then went up to Selwyn College, Cambridge to read Theology with a view to ordination. However he had difficulties with his faith at that time and joined Pfizer as a salesman and brand manager. In 1960 he moved to the advertising agency Robert Sharp and Partners running the Players and Unilever accounts. In 1963 went into the wine business of Charington United Breweries Group (later Bass Charrington). He then moved to Jardine Matheson where, from 1982 to 1988 he was managing director of wines and spirits.
Meanwhile he had been ordained priest in 1981, as a protege of Robert Runcie. He served as a "worker-priest" at St. John's Cathedral in Hong Kong, the Anglican church in Tokyo and at CIA and NSA facilities in Asia. These roles fitted in with his business travel.
In 1988 he settled in London and became a full-time priest at St Margaret's, Westminster and also appeals director of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and Director of the Industrial Christian Fellowship. In 1997 he was elected Preacher to Gray's Inn, continuing until his death. Also in 1997 he was appointed OBE "for services to the whisky industry". With this description, The Queen was surprised to see him in clerical dress!
He married in 1962, Anne Alsop, who survives him with three sons and a daughter.[1]