Daniel Sandford (soldier)

Brigadier Daniel Arthur Sandford CBE, DSO (18 June 1882 – 22 January 1972) was an officer in the British Army, and an adviser to Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.

Sandford was born at Barnstaple, Devon in June 1882, son of the Venerable Ernest Grey Sandford, Archdeacon of Exeter; his great-grandfather was Daniel Sandford (Bishop of Edinburgh), and his brother was Lieutenant Richard Douglas Sandford VC.

He was commissioned into the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) as a second lieutenant on 18 August 1900, and was promoted to lieutenant on 22 May 1902. Before the war, he saw imperial Service in both India and the Sudan.

Sandford first arrived at the Western Front in France as a Captain in February 1915, and by May 1916 had been promoted to the rank of Major and was Officer Commanding of the 94th (Siege) Battery, RGA, leading it in action from Hebuterne in Artois in opening of the Somme Offensive on 1 July 1916 until he was posted to command 355 (Siege) Battery in September 1918.

Following the war he resigned and moved to Ethiopia. Colonel Sandford became an advisor to Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie.

Until early 1936, before the Second World War, Sandford had been in Ethiopia, but he had to flee the country once it became clear that the 1935 Italian invasion of Ethiopia would succeed. Once in England, Sandford maintained contact with the exiled Emperor, Haile Selassie, who was based in Bath.

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