GEORGE FREW takes a look at the man behind the arms to Africa affair...

PETER Penfold is a fully paid up, lifelong member of the Africa Corps - the Diplomatic Corps, that is.

He'd been busy serving his country for 33 years, mainly in Africa, long before he sprang to unwelcome prominence for his controversial role in the Sierra Leone arms affair which restored a democratically elected president to power and booted out a military junta.

He might be regarded as a mixture of hero and saint in Sierra Leone, but back home in Abingdon's Fisherman's Wharf, you may be sure that Peter Penfold regards himself as nothing of the sort.

This is a man who could turn self-effacement into an art form. How else can you describe someone who once turned up to do a newspaper interview with a moderately famous actor friend in tow because he didn't think that he (Penfold) would be "interesting enough"?

He's about as far removed from the widely perceived Carter-Brown of the F.O. upper-class twit image of the career diplomat as it's possible to be.

Instead of the usual diplomatic career prep path of Eton, Sandhurst and the Guards, or a spell at one of the correct Oxbridge colleges, Penfold started his working life as a butcher in Brixton, south London.

He joined the diplomatic service to put his A-levels in French and German to better use. His second posting was to Nigeria - and his love affair with Africa had begun.

He once remarked: "I got bitten by the Africa bug. They say once you dip your toe in the Nile, you'll always return." So far in his career, he has survived two coups and a war, prior to the little local difficulties he faced in Sierra Leone.

He was the deputy commissioner in Uganda during that country's years of strife - a time when his skills as a butcher stood him in good stead.

He recalled: "During the war, they used to fly in these sides of meat and I would butcher them. Otherwise, we would have just had chopped-up hunks."

He met his Trinidadian-born wife Celia in Uganda. She's currently studying theology at Oxford. But anyone studying the life and times of Penfold is swiftly struck by two things - his natural modesty and his calm approach to life.

Guns may blaze, bombs may explode, military juntas may fall and the Customs and Excise people may order attendance, but Penfold remains unfazed by it all.

When the war was raging in Sierra Leone last year, Penfold organised the successful evacuation of more than 1,000 Europeans.

He somehow also managed to persuade the leaders of the military coup to leave off shelling a hotel where a further number of refugees were cowering terrified in the basement.

He was himself reluctant to leave and only got round to it after a direct order from the Ministry. A source said: "Because of the sort of genuinely humble character he is, you could easily imagine him writing it up in his dairy along the lines of 'Quiet day - evacuated small African country' or something."

Wherever he's gone in Africa, people have tended to remember Penfold with affection. He's a man who tends to leave his mark, so it's hardly surprising that the people of Sierra Leone regard him as a hero and are angered at any suggestions that he might be reprimanded, whatever he's alleged to have said or done. "I know the three and a half years I spent in Uganda have had an impact, because people write and tell me," he once admitted.

While he was there, he helped the son of one of his house staff go to university. The boy has since graduated.

"These are the sorts of things you can do which I find rather fulfilling," he said at the time.

By any standards, Peter Penfold is a remarkable individual. He wouldn't necessarily agree, of course.

But Our Man in Sierra Leone is also his own man.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.