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.

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.

Unlike Sir Anthony Nutting, who resigned as Minister of State at the Foreign Office, Dodds-Parker considered it his duty to remain in office even though he did not support the plan for Britain and France to invade Egypt under the pretext of separating the Egyptians from a prearranged invasion by Israel; he was, however, sacked from government in the following year.

The size of territory allotted to each young graduate, just starting their career, was immense and the SPS needed to, and was able to, choose only the pick of each year's crop.

The SPS was very selective in recruitment but favoured champion sportsmen rather than scholars, leading to the popular adage of the time was that Sudan was a country of 'blacks ruled by Blues', after the colours awarded to sports teams captains at Oxbridge.

After the war broke out in 1939, Dodds-Parker left Sudan to join the Grenadier Guards, but was seconded to the Special Operations Executive when it was formed in July 1940.

He served in the field as an officer in Gideon Force, under Orde Wingate, organising "ungentlemanly warfare" against Italy in Ethiopia and helping Emperor Haile Selassie to return to Addis Ababa in May 1941.

He was one of the hosts of Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev when they visited the UK in April 1956, and was in office during the Suez Crisis in October 1956.

The Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd was often absent from the House of Commons, and Dodds-Parker was forced to answer questions, unconvincingly, in his stead.

After a period in business, as a director of Head Wrightson and of British Empire Steel Products, Dodds-Parker returned to Parliament as MP for Cheltenham in the 1964 general election.