Sir Ernest Lucas Guest KBE CMG CVO (20 August 1882 – 20 September 1972) was a Rhodesian politician, lawyer and soldier.

Guest's grandfather had moved the family to South Africa in 1861 from Kidderminster, England, where they had been involved in the printing business for three generations.

The family resided there until 1889 when Ernest's father, Herbert Melville Guest,[1] moved them to Klerksdorp, Transvaal, after buying the local newspaper and printing business.

Its task of guarding a bridge over a railway line was unappealing, so he took the opportunity of joining the Eastern Province Light Horse, attached to the Highland Brigade, which was recruiting volunteers who could both ride and shoot.

Early in the Brigade's advance into the Orange Free State on its way to the relief of Kimberley, Guest got food poisoning and he returned to Grahamstown.

[2] After recovering, he joined the Kimberley Mounted Corps and guided two officers from Lichtenburg to Klerksdorp, where they persuaded the Boers to surrender by bluffing that a strong British force was following close behind.

[4] He was recommended for a commission and posted to the Johannesburg Mounted Rifles, whose colonel decided that Guest was too young to lead a force composed of miners who were considerably older than him.

Returning to Klerksdorp, Guest learned that the Bechuanaland Rifles were recruiting experienced officers; he went to Mafeking and was accepted into the unit, with whom he served until the end of the war.

The British South Africa Company (which then administered the territory) took no steps to aid recruiting for the forces, so many men paid their own fares to England to join up.

A number of eligible recruits could not afford to go, so Guest, together with Captain Alwyn Knowles of the Bedfordshire Regiment, who as a reserve officer was awaiting his call-up,[5] organised a private fund to pay their passages.

It was not long before Guest was wounded, and then he fell victim to an irritating and persistent skin complaint which was common in the trenches and did not respond to treatment.

He was evacuated to England and after a brief period in hospital was sent to the Imperial Hydro at St Annes, where he was told that he would not be fit to return to his unit for six months.

After the regiment was disbanded at the end of the campaign, he was commissioned as a machine gun officer in the Second Cape Corps for service in East Africa;[11][12] he was killed in action on 6 November 1917[13] at the Battle of Mahiwa while checking the advance of a vastly superior enemy force.

Nevertheless, he managed to start his legal career when a Klerksdorp solicitor, Maurice Rood, offered him a job drawing up claims for compensation by farmers whose properties had been destroyed or damaged by the British forces.

Champion's practice, as Deputy Sheriff, consisted mainly of debt-collecting and lending money to doubtful borrowers at a high rate of interest.

[14] Guest prepared his petition for admission to the Southern Rhodesian High Court and briefed counsel to represent him before the Chief Justice, Sir Joseph Vintcent.

The Judge dispensed with the requirement to apply first for admission in the Cape Colony and admitted him as an attorney of the High Court of Southern Rhodesia.

So began a friendship that was to endure for the rest of Hudson's life and through many vicissitudes – in the legal profession, on active service in the First World War, and during the years when they were both members of the Cabinet.

Despite the constituency being largely Afrikaans, he won the seat, defeating the incumbent Charles Edward Gilfillan of the Progressive Party with a majority of 283 votes to 211.

[17][20] The eventual construction of Kariba Dam was of enormous value to the development of both Rhodesia and the Zambian Copperbelt, and led to the creation of what was at the time the largest manmade lake in Africa south of the Sahara.

[21] At a special sitting of Parliament on 28 August 1939, Rhodesia determined to stand by Great Britain in the event that war should break out, as was expected.

An offer was made to British Air Ministry to run a flying school and to train personnel to man three squadrons, which was duly accepted.

[36] The trainees came mainly from Britain, but also from Australia, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, USA, Yugoslavia, Greece, France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, Fiji and Malta.

[39] In September 1940, 237 Squadron was relieved by units of the South African Air Force and redeployed in Sudan,[41] where the Operations Record for the last three months of 1940 showed it was involved in reconnaissance, dive-bombing and pamphlet-dropping.

The Hardys were replaced by Westland Lysander II army co-operation planes as well as Gloster Gladiator fighter biplanes.

[53] The bomber Squadron, equipped with Hampdens, took part in raids on Berlin and many other targets, as well as mine-laying in sea traffic lanes.

[53] Although the order was given in December to cease operations in the Hampdens, it was not until 3 March 1942 that the Lancaster was put on active service on its first battle mission for the entire RAF.

[21] Although he had retired from political office, Guest continued to be active in public life, for example in organising the 1953 Rhodes Centenary Exhibition in Southern Rhodesia.

[71] John Desmond Thomas Guest (1920–21 November 1941), Melville's twin brother, turned down a Rhodes Scholarship at Trinity College, Oxford[72] as the war broke out and enlisted in England instead,[73] commissioned Second Lieutenant in the King's Royal Rifle Corps in June 1940.

[85] In Parliament, a motion of condolence was moved on 14 November 1972 by Jack Howman, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Public Services – and a partner in Coghlan, Welsh & Guest – as Acting Leader of the House.