Wilfred Thesiger played a large part in my life as a child and teenager. He had also been born in Ethiopia which used to be called Abyssinia. His parents were attached to the British legation there.
I can remember Stephen and me going for rides with him across the plains below Entoto and the English Legation. He always rode sitting up very straight whereas Stephen and I rode with our legs flapping wildly as we urged our horses to go faster and faster.
I remember we made a sort of regiment which we called (The bats out of hell) He was the commanding officer, and we were his junior officers.
Then the Italians invaded Ethiopia and we had to leave and come back to England.
I can’t remember what Wilfred did during those years, but I am sure it was original and probably quite exciting and dangerous.
After the war, when Italy joined with Germany and invaded Ethiopia hoping to form an Italian colony; my father had been asked to infiltrate Ethiopia to support the Ethiopian patriots. I am pretty sure that Wilfred was with him as well. (But I can’t be sure all those years ago).
After the war, Wilfred was appointed advisor to the Crown Prince of Ethiopia who at that time was governor of Dessie in the northern part of Ethiopia. Wilfred found it not at all what he wanted to do.
I remember him asking my mother Christine what he should wear to walk in the heavenly throng.
It was just not his idea of a future life. I can remember visiting him in Dessie once and he was horrified by how much bread we ate.
He then came up with the idea of crossing the Empty Quarter in Saudi Arabia.
Most people were horrified, and the British Legation in Addis Ababa refused to support him.
He came to my father and asked him what he should do. My father (Daniel Sandford] said to him “Do you think you can manage on your own?” I do think I can reply to Wilfred. Then go said my dad and Wilfred did go. I have a feeling that his family did not approve of our family for supporting Wilfred in all these extraordinary ideas. But I am glad we did, and I remained a friend of his until he died.
He lived in London at 15 Shelly Court Road, and I used to go and visit him there and tick him off for having well past their sell-by date food to eat. I think I probably took food with me to leave enough for him to eat (after I had cleared all the mouldy food out) We used to sit in the garden of the place he lived in and talk about olden days and remember places we had both of us visited.
I went to his funeral which I found a very sad thing to do. There were a lot of people there including Enid Parker who had met him in Ethiopia. She was a great talker and I wished she would shut up because I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts and memories of him.
I have most of the books he wrote and enjoy reading them as they bring back memories of him.