John Lindsay Robert Guest (born 2 December 1960), generally known as John Guest, is an Australian writer, genealogist, and historian.
He is best known as John L. R. Guest for his genealogy, history, and Australian rules football books. [1]
The National Library of Australia and State Library Victoria preserve for their historical and cultural significance, paperback copies of his work. [2] [3] The Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies considers his four part book series to be "magnus opus." [4] His football books were reviewed by experts with long-standing ties to the Australian Sports Commission and deemed to have high historical and cultural value and were added to the Australian Sports Books & Films list. He is a stoic advocate for open access of heritage material in the public domain as demonstrated by his philanthropic research donations.
A former businessman, he established for the VACC their College of Automotive Business Management in 1993, and continuing today as the Skills Development Centre. For the Kangan Institute and the Australian automobile industry, he establishment stage one, Automotive Centre of Excellence, Docklands. [5] In 2000 he was awarded a fellowship with the Corporate Directors Association. After engagement with Raytheon in 2001, he joined VicRoads in 2006 to help establish their internationally acclaimed "Capability Building Program" researched, implemented and managed by him. [6] [7] [8]
From 2015 to 2020, he returned to the VACC to advocate successfully, compensation for small automotive businesses as a remedy to dubious practices by some financial institutions. [9] [10] [11]
Guest was instrumental in forming the Coburg-Fitzroy Lions partnership in the Victorian Football League (VFL) in 1999, along with Bill Atherton and Elaine Finlay. He served on the Coburg Football Club board in 1999 and 2000, promoting Fitzroy Football Club's legacy since 1883 despite the club's merger in 1996 with the Brisbane Bears, to trade as the Brisbane Lions, an Australian Football League (AFL) team. Additionally, he played for Sunbury and Hamersley Carine in the Perth Football League, making the club's 1980 team of the decade as part of the 50 years celebration. [12] He also served as President during their 1990 premiership year. [13] He has strong ancestral ties to the North Melbourne Football Club, where his grandfather, grand uncles, and great-grandfather were prominent pioneers of the club during its formative period. [14]