Obituary: Sir Christopher Ondaatje
Somerset County Cricket Club is mourning the sad loss of Sir Christopher Ondaatje who passed away on 20th July 2026 aged 93.
Sir Christopher was born in Sri Lanka on 22nd February 1933 and started his association with the west country when he was sent to Blundell’s School at Tiverton , where he excelled at cricket and remained until 1951.
After emigrating to Canada in 1956 he enjoyed a successful business career in finance and publishing as well as representing the country in the four man bobsled at the 1964 Winter Olympics at Innsbruck.
Later he sold his businesses and in 1988 returned to England, purchased a house in North Devon and embarked on several journeys of exploration to Central Africa as well as becoming a best selling author and philanthropist.
Sir Christopher was a generous supporter of Blundell’s School and among other things funded Ondaatje Hall as well as supporting a cricket scholarship at the school.
He supported his local team Lynton and Lynmouth Cricket Club and after linking up with another former OB Ted Crowe he became involved with Somerset County Cricket Club who at the time were looking to build an indoor school.
Sir Christopher generously donated £200k towards the new Pavilion and the Centre of Excellence on the eastern side of the ground, that is named in his honour.
The Ondaatje Pavilion also contains the Old Blundellian’s Box and Centre of Excellence was officially opened in 1995.
For several years at the start of the 21st century Sir Christopher served as Patron of SCCC.
Sir Christopher was made a Commander of the British Empire, and awarded a Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honour’s list in June 2003 for services to museums, galleries and societies.
Earlier this year the Old Blundellian’s held a lunch to mark the 30th anniversary of the opening of the OB Box.
The Devon Cricket Centre at Exeter University is also named in Sir Christopher’s honour after he made a sizeable donation. towards it’s building.
Richard Parsons who was Chairman of SCCC between 1988 and 2002 said: “Sir Christopher was the most generous benefactor we’ve had in a very long time.
“He was a gentleman and extremely kind to the Club which was appreciated by everybody because all of the developments Somerset had done that was the most important because it was an indoor cricket school of which we could be proud.”
