Leslie - Chapman-Andrews and the emperor

First published in Great Britain in 2005 by
Pen & Sword Military
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Pen & Sword Books Ltd
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Copyright Peter Leslie, 2005

ISBN 1 84415 257 X
PRINT ISBN: 9781844152575
ePub ISBN: 9781844683451
PRC ISBN: 9781844683468

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Glossary

Introduction

Sir Edwin Chapman-Andrews had always intended to write up some of the more interesting and historic parts of his life and to that end had kept a variety of papers, letters and other records. After his retirement he planned to write some sketches on three men who had played an important part in his life: Wingate, Thesiger and Boustead, but retirement turned out to mean a life full of business interests and charitable work and time slipped by. When in his 70s he started sketching in outline how he might bring together his own memoirs, he realized from enquiries at the Foreign Office how many records had been destroyed or weeded, which he told an old colleague was really quite scandalous, and how much work would be involved. By then his health was failing and in 1977 he suffered a stroke from which he never really recovered. On his death in 1980 Lady Chapman-Andrews was approached about Sir Edwins records and consulted me, as I had married Charlotte, their elder daughter, five years before. It is only now that I am fully retired that I have been able to discharge my promise to her to take on the work of writing them up; she had died in our house in 2002, aged 97.

I have called this book Chapman-Andrews and the Emperor since Haile Selassie and Ethiopia filled such a long and central role in his life, including the dramatic march with the Emperor under Gideon Force to recover his country in 1941, covered in his diary. It is no coincidence that the three names of Wingate, Thesiger and Boustead were all associated with those days. I have also tried to use his own words, wherever possible, whilst bringing in the other records which he had carefully retained, particularly concerning his service in Egypt and the Sudan. What is missing is his own intimate knowledge and his own elegant and forceful prose. Sir Edwin was, as diplomat, famously discreet and kept confidential information within his own remarkable memory and only rarely in his papers. I have tried to give the story historical form and to provide such notes as I felt necessary to give coherence and explanation. Whilst I have made use of the many books on the period, I have not undertaken much original research, but have relied particularly on three very valuable sources: Thesigers The Life of My Choice, Anthony Mocklers Haile Selassies War and David Shirreffs Barefoot and Bandoliers, which gives a first-rate and thorough account of Gideon Force, particularly from the military point of view.

Haile Selassies personality commanded the respect and admiration of many British people in a way not easy to explain. Sir Edwin was a very loyal British public servant and wrote that he learned early on not to become attached to places or indeed foreigners (except for dear old Haile Selassie), but it is clear from this story how much the Emperor meant to him. However, there is no doubt that his own loyalty was to the British Government and that he was well aware that the Emperor kept his own cards close to his chest and had only one ambition: to keep Ethiopia independent and under his control, whilst happy to make use of others. Sir Edwin would have been happy that he did not long outlast the Emperor whose fate he greatly mourned.