Peter Alfred Penfold (27 February 1944 – 1 October 2023) was a British diplomat who was the second youngest governor of the British Virgin Islands and was High Commissioner to the Republic of Sierra Leone. His career began in 1963, when he joined the Foreign Service as a clerical officer. Two years into his career, he was posted to the British embassy in Bonn, West Germany, and two years after that to Nigeria. From 1970 to 1972, Penfold served as a "floater" in Latin America, filling in as necessary for staff at British missions in the region. He served in Mexico during the 1970 football world cup, and on St Vincent, where he was responsible for organising an evacuation after a volcanic eruption. After Latin America, Penfold briefly served in Canberra, before returning to London to take a post in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). He earned early promotion to second secretary in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he was responsible for reporting on the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the Eritrean War of Independence and was still in the country during the revolution, in which the pro-Western emperor was overthrown. After completing his tour in Ethiopia, Penfold served as information officer in Port of Spain and then as first secretary in the West Africa Department of the FCO.
Penfold's next overseas posting was to Kampala, Uganda, as deputy high commissioner. There, he persuaded President Milton Obote to attend the queen's birthday party for the first time. Two months later, Obote was overthrown in a coup, after which Penfold led an evacuation of foreign citizens to Kenya. The high commission remained open, and Penfold was still present six months later when a second coup took place.
In 1987, he again returned to the FCO, this time serving in the West Indian and Atlantic Department, and four years later, he was appointed Governor of the British Virgin Islands. The main issues of Penfold's tenure were the establishment of the territory as an offshore financial centre and the smuggling of drugs through its waters until the sudden death of the chief minister. Penfold resolved the subsequent constitutional crisis by appointing the deputy chief minister as an interim replacement. Penfold's term as governor expired in 1996, after which he spent a year as a drugs adviser to the Caribbean before being appointed High Commissioner to Sierra Leone in 1997. Six weeks into Penfold's term, President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was overthrown in a military coup and Penfold organised an evacuation of foreign citizens.
After a hotel housing the remaining foreign nationals was attacked, Penfold organised a further evacuation, which was conducted by an American warship. The ship transported the evacuees—including Penfold—to Conakry in neighbouring Guinea. While in Conakry, Penfold advised Kabbah on re-establishing his government in exile, and leased a disused restaurant for the government's headquarters. Kabbah was restored in February 1998, but the role of the private military company Sandline International in assisting Kabbah created controversy in the United Kingdom, as its services were alleged to violate an arms embargo on Sierra Leone. After an HM Customs investigation, a parliamentary inquiry, and a select committee investigation, Penfold was reprimanded but allowed to return to his post.
Later in the year, violence began to intensify again in Sierra Leone, and Penfold was ordered to evacuate foreign nationals (the eight evacuation of his career and the second in Sierra Leone) over Christmas 1998. He requested an extension to his term as high commissioner, but the request was denied and he left Sierra Leone in April 2000. He spent the last year of his career working for the Department for International Development and retired in 2001.
In retirement, Penfold spoke on issues concerning Africa, particularly Sierra Leone, and was critical of the FCO. His support of Kabbah, and his role in returning him to power in 1998, earned Penfold folk hero status in Sierra Leone.
Early life Peter Alfred Penfold was born to Alfred and Florence (née Green) in 1944 and educated at Sutton Grammar School for Boys, where he stayed on until 19. He left school with A-levels in French, German, and geography, and took casual employment to earn money. Having a desire to make use of his language qualifications, he began applying for jobs at multi-national companies. He applied to Civil Service and passed the civil service exam, but was keen to join the Foreign Service. He took and passed a second exam to join the Foreign Service, but had to enter at a lower grade than he would have held in the Civil Service.Cullimore, p. 2.
Early career
1963–1984: career beginnings Penfold's diplomatic career began as a clerical officer at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London in 1963. In 1965, two years into his career, Penfold was posted to the British embassy in Bonn, West Germany, where he served as a clerical officer until 1968. At the end of his posting, he was sent to Kaduna, Nigeria, where he was one of only six staff. Penfold admitted that—had he been able to choose his posting—he would probably not have chosen Kaduna and may not have considered Africa, but the posting "started [his] love affair with Africa". He spent two years in Kaduna as one of the three junior staff who, unlike the senior staff, had no diplomatic privilege.Cullimore, p. 3. From 1970 to 1972, Penfold was a Latin American "floater"—part of a pool of five staff who could be sent to assist diplomatic missions to provide support during busy times or to cover for staff leave.Cullimore, p. 4.
Penfold's first assignment as Latin American floater was in Mexico City, where he acted as vice consul during the football world cup while many of the diplomatic staff were in Guadalajara, where the England national team were based. After the conclusion of the world cup, Penfold was sent to Ecuador, where he was responsible for overseeing renovation work to the ambassador's residence. He was in Ecuador for six months, after which he was sent to Uruguay to assist in the aftermath of the kidnapping of Ambassador Geoffrey Jackson. Six weeks later, he was ordered to Paraguay, where the British mission was staffed by a single diplomat, for whom Penfold would cover while they took leave. Penfold's final posting as a "floater" was to St Vincent, which at the time relied on the United Kingdom for defence and foreign policy matters. Three weeks after his arrival, the volcano on the island erupted, and Penfold was responsible for co-ordinating an evacuation by the Royal Navy.Cullimore, pp. 5–6.
Of his term as Latin American floater, Penfold stated that he found the variety of tasks he performed "valuable experience" for his later career. After Latin America, he was immediately sent to Canberra in 1972, having been told that the passport officer there was dying. He arrived to find that there had been a misunderstanding regarding the passport officer's health. He stayed to assist for three months before returning to London, where he became a desk officer in the Pacific and Dependent Territories Department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). Working with the Overseas Development Administration, he was responsible for several small territories in the Pacific. During his tenure, Penfold turned down a job inside 10 Downing Street as part of a European Commission secretariat being set up by Prime Minister Ted Heath, believing the position to be inferior to the one he held.Cullimore, pp. 6–7.
1975–1987: Ethiopia and Uganda In 1975, while serving at the FCO, Penfold volunteered to learn a difficult language in the hope of advancing his career. After passing an aptitude test, he was assigned a professional language tutor and began learning Amharic—the official language of Ethiopia—and after six weeks of tuition, was sent to Gondar to continue learning the language by living in Ethiopia. Shortly after, he was posted to Addis Ababa as second secretary, because the British ambassador to Ethiopia, Sir Willie Morris, was keen to have an Amharic-speaking second secretary. Penfold was responsible for monitoring and reporting on internal Ethiopian affairs and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), as the latter was based in Addis. As part of the role, Penfold was required to attend and report on meetings of the OAU, which took place all over Africa.Cullimore, pp. 8–9. On the instruction of Foreign Secretary David Owen, Penfold met with the leaders of the independence movement in Southern Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe) at an OAU conference in Gabon in 1977. There he met separately with Bishop Muzorewa, Joshua Nkomo, and Robert Mugabe.Cullimore, p. 9. Penfold believed Mugabe to be difficult to work with, but later stated that it should have been obvious that Mugabe would come to power in Zimbabwe and that the British government could have made a greater effort to work with him.Cullimore, p. 10.
Penfold's tenure in Ethiopia coincided with the Eritrean War of Independence, which Penfold was responsible for monitoring. To that end, he was required to covertly meet with Eritrean informants, sometimes smuggling them back to the British compound in the boot of his car, to keep up to date on the progress of the war. Penfold was also in the country during the Ethiopian Revolution, in which the pro-Western Emperor Haile Selassie I was overthrown by a faction of the military—which became the Derg—sympathetic to the Soviet Union. He remained in Ethiopia until 1978, when he was sent to Port of Spain as information officer, with responsibility for editing a magazine aimed at promoting British trade.Cullimore, pp. 10–11. Penfold returned to London in 1981, serving as first secretary in the West Africa Department of the FCO. At the time, the FCO had two career "streams"—one for non-graduates and a faster one for university graduates—and during his time in the West Africa Department, Penfold "bridged" into the faster stream.Cullimore, pp. 11–12.
After "bridging", Penfold was promoted and posted to Kampala, Uganda, in 1984 as deputy high commissioner. He had attended an OAU conference in Uganda in the 1970s and was pleased to be posted there. Within a few weeks, the high commissioner took leave and Penfold became acting high commissioner. One of his first tasks was the 1985 high commission's queen's birthday party, which he postponed to allow President Milton Obote to attend—the first time Obote attended a national day. Two months after the birthday party, Penfold was still acting high commissioner when he was informed of an impending coup. He notified the American, French, and UN representatives, after which he instructed all the British staff to move into the high commissioner's residence until the fighting was over.Cullimore, pp. 12–13. As shooting broke out on the outskirts of Kampala, Obote fled the country along with most of his ministers, leaving the country in chaos. The following day, Penfold travelled into the city centre with the American and UN representatives to determine who was in charge of the country and make contact with the new regime. He met a Ugandan Army major, to whom he expressed his concerns about the security situation and explained that foreign citizens would likely be evacuated, which happened three days later when Penfold led an evacuation by road to Kenya.Cullimore, p. 17. Although most foreign citizens had left, Penfold kept the British High Commission open and all the staff remained.Cullimore, p. 18. The Ugandan military began forming a government and attempted to include all tribes in the country, to which end Penfold assisted by meeting with Yoweri Museveni, leader of the National Resistance Army. Museveni refused to join the government and six months later led another coup and declared himself president.Cullimore, pp. 19–20. Penfold was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1986.