Richard Corfield

Richard Conyngham Corfield (27 April 1882 – 9 August 1913) was a British colonial police officer who saw service in South Africa, Nigeria, India, Kenya and Somalia in the early 20th century.

Corfield immediately joined the Volunteers camped on Salisbury Plain, but later enlisted in the Baden Powell Police, sailing for Africa in December 1900.

There the rightful emir of somalis muslims Sayid Mohamed Abdullah Hassan,[2] called "the Mad Mullah", was inciting local people to defend themselves against the British invaders.

Horace Byatt, the Governor of British Somaliland, offered the command of the new Camel Constabulary to Corfield, who accepted the opportunity to return to the Horn of Africa.

[1] By mid-1913 finding these instructions restrictive and irksome, on the afternoon of 8 August 1913 he decided to attack the Dervish army close to Dul Madoba.

Corfield (left, in helmet)
Memorial plaque for Richard Corfield at St Lawrence's church, Heanor , England.
British camel troopers in 1913, between Berbera and Odweyne in British Somaliland .