Description:''Sir Arthur Douglas Dodds-Parker (5 July 1909 – 13 September 2006) was a British imperial administrator, a wartime soldier involved in irregular warfare, and Conservative politician.
Between the wars, he served in the Sudan, in the prestigious Sudan Political Service. Once the war broke out, he joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE), but was returned to the Sudan to serve in the famous Gideon Force during the liberation of Ethiopia. After the East African campaign, he served on SOE's planning staff in London, before taking command roles in the Mediterranean Theatre.
He returned to London soon afterwards, to become a mission planner under Colin Gubbins, using his newly gained practical experience to organise guerrilla warfare and 'Set Europe Ablaze', by infiltrating Special Operations teams into occupied Europe.
Dodds-Parker was finally sent in late 1942 to Algiers, where he assisted with the negotiations for the armistice with Italy, and then in Apulia to command SOE operations in the Western and Central Mediterranean, in charge of operations in Italy and along the Adriatic, but also to Poland and Eastern Europe. He then had a spell in Athens. He ended the war at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in Paris, with the rank of colonel. He was awarded the Légion d'honneur and Croix de Guerre for his efforts, and Mentioned in Dispatches.