Godfrey Meynell

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Godfrey Meynell was the British Assistant Advisor at Dhala from late 1961 to the end of 1963, covering the Thumier area. He would often meet with and discuss Radfani affairs with Amir Sha’aful. Godfrey was in charge of the pacification and development of Radfan following the military campaign there in 1964. Officially, Radfan lay within the domain of the Amir of Dhala but his pretensions to rule these fiercely independent tribesmen were not accepted by most Radfanis. Amir Sha’aful rarely felt able to go down there in person so in the absence of a credible Dhala’i representative, it was the British Assistant Adviser who headed the administration. 

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Godfrey performed prodigious feats of development work in difficult and dangerous circumstances and with scarce resources. He laboured long and earnestly to introduce some measure of development into those areas isolated by warfare and poor communications. In fact his role was much more that of a traditional Colonial district officer than adviser. Despite the passage of many years his name is still fondly remembered in Radfan.

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Godfrey lived in Dhala with his wife, Honor Mary, and their daughter, Diana. Later the family moved to the relative comfort and security of the Federal Capital, Al Ittihad, while Godfrey continued to work in Radfan. After the Radfan Campaign in 1964 he worked as the Amir's Naib in Radfan, with a welcome increase in pay. He was again based in Thumier and left late 1966.

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"During our few days at Dhala we were afforded the hospitality of Godfrey Meynell at his fortified 2-storey stone home in a 'secure' compound in Dhala. Godfrey, the Assistant Advisor, was well-known, and liked, by the local people. Brian Betham, a Field Intelligence Officer seconded from the RAF, lived in a smaller house in the same compound as  Godfrey Meynell's house in Dhala. He had a wife, Margery, and a daughter, Elspeth, who was about my age, and one day some donkeys were arranged for us to ride. We didn't ride too far in the blistering heat, nor of course for security reasons, but it was a novel experience and quite good fun. But I recall having a sore bum for a few days afterwards."  Brian Betham retired to a job at the London School of Economics soon after leaving Dhala.                  ~     Peter Pickering

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(He is white-haired with crystalline blue eyes and a ruddy face that bears the glowing look of a man who feels that in the autumn of his life he is exactly where he ought to be. Godfrey Meynell, M.B.E., is a former British Assistant Advisor in Dhala near Aden, former high sheriff of Derby, former Home Office civil servant, former independent Green candidate for parliament, and a self-described loyalist to church and Queen. Today, the 68-year-old grandfather and country squire, is married to a Church of England priest.

The well-known Meynell Hunt was conducted from his property in Meynell Langley, Derbyshire, England till the banning of foxhunting.)