The son of Sir Thomas Meyrick, the 3rd Baronet of Meyrick, John Meyrick was educated at Eton College and then Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he graduated in 1948 with a BA, and that same year was appointed a Fellow, Chartered Land Agents’ Society (F.C.L.A.S.). He obtained an MA in 1956 and was appointed Fellow, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (F.R.I.C.S.) and became the land agent to the Croome Estate in Worcestershire. A rowing Blue in 1947 and 1948, Meyrick was on the winning crew both times. He was elected secretary of the Cambridge University Boat Club in 1947, and that same year was a member of the Trinity fours that beat Emmanuel College (also Cambridge), to win the Visitors’ Challenge Cup at Henley. Meyrick succeeded to the Baronetcy upon the death of his father in 1983.