He could have walked straight from the pages of Graham Greene's Our man in Havana. With his unassuming air Britain's High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, Mr Peter Penfold, OBE CMG, has a reputation for a cool head in a crisis, writes Rachel Donnelly.
He has been described as "phlegmatic" and "beagle-faced" and he probably has a crisp, white linen suit hanging in his wardrobe. But there is no doubt that during 35 years' service in the Foreign Office, Mr Penfold has earned the respect of the mandarins who pace the corridors of Whitehall carrying out the wishes of their political masters.
Peter Alfred Penfold (54) was educated at Sutton County Grammar School. He has been married twice and has two sons and two daughters from his first marriage. He joined the Foreign Office aged 19 and has held posts in four continents in far-flung places like Uganda, the Caribbean and Latin America.
In 1985, when acting high commissioner in Kampala, Mr Penfold came to world attention during a military coup against the Ugandan President Milton Obote. Mr Penfold and his staff had been forced to take refuge in the official compound, eating food from tins and sleeping on the floor, while militia groups fought against proObote forces outside. As the gunbattle continued and at great personal risk, Mr Penfold led his staff to a secure part of the compound.
Again, in 1987 Mr Penfold came to the aid of a Ugandan journalist who feared for his life after witnessing the murder of an opposition politician by soldiers. Mr Penfold displayed considerable bravery when he drove the journalist, Mr Henry Gombya, through army road-blocks to the safety of Entebbe airport.
Mr Penfold had previously been given the task of remonstrating with Mr Obote about his country's dismal human rights record but the Gombya escape damaged relations between Uganda and Britain, which Mr Obote accused of obstructing justice. After he arrived in Sierra Leone in January last year, Mr Penfold was plunged into the military coup which ousted President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. Although he was part of a delegation of foreign diplomats who held talks with the leader of the junta, Maj Johnny Koromah, he was not able to persuade Maj Koromah to return the country to civilian rule. Mr Penfold is now assisting British Customs and Excise in its investigation into allegations that a number of companies breached UN sanctions by supplying arms to Sierra Leone in an attempt to restore Mr Kabbah to power.