Oscar Alan Spencer

Oscar Alan Spencer CMG (12 December 1913 – 12 September 1993) was a British economist who served with the Colonial Office and the United Nations, and was economic adviser to the governments of Malaya, British Guiana, Sudan, Ethiopia and the Seychelles.

Early life and education Oscar Spencer was born on 12 December 1913 in Eastleigh, Hampshire, the son of the Madrid correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. His father died when he was six months old and he was raised by his mother who owned a milliner's shop in Chelsea. He was educated at Mayfield College, Sussex, and the London School of Economics where he received his BCom in 1936. He won the Premchand Prize in Banking and Currency (1936) and was John Coleman Postgraduate Scholar in Business Administration (1936–37).

Military service After working for two years with the Manhattan Bank in London, he was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps and was sent to join the Eighth Army in the Western Desert. Later he took part in the Sicily landings and served the remainder of the war fighting in Italy where he was mentioned in dispatches and rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. After "liberating" San Marino soon after the Germans had left he was made Commander of the Order of St Agatha. He was again mentioned in dispatches after the war for organising supply lines to people starving in the Netherlands.

In 1960, he joined the United Nations and was sent to Sudan as the UN Technical Assistant Adviser liaising between the government in Khartoum and the World Bank who had provided financial support to the Government of Sudan. From 1960 to 1964, he served as Economic Adviser to the Government of Sudan, and from 1964 to 1966, he was the first Senior Regional Adviser on Public Finance and Head of Fiscal Section at the UN Economic Commission for Africa. In 1966 he was appointed Financial Adviser to the Government of Ethiopia but retired from the UN in 1976 when the Marxist regime overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie. In 1944, he was made Commander of the Order of St Agatha, San Marino. In 1958, he was appointed Knight of the Order of Defenders of the Realm (PMN).