Peter Pennant-Rea; Rhodesian official who left the country with £100 rather than serve Ian Smith's white rebel regime
Hyfler/Rosner
March 21, 2007
Peter Pennant-Rea
Rhodesian official who left the country with £100 rather
than serve Ian Smith's white rebel regime
When Ian Smith made his Unilateral Declaration of
Independence on November 11, l965, Peter Pennant-Rea was one
of only three Rhodesian civil servants who immediately left
their posts. As director of civil aviation, he refused to
take an order from the Minister of Transport imposing a ban
on all flights in Rhodesian air-space.
His constitutional allegiance was to the Governor of
Rhodesia, Sir Humphrey Gibbs, who had just dismissed all the
ministers. In the confusion of that fateful afternoon,
Pennant-Rea was escorted from his office, his principles
firm but his future precarious.
The Smith regime survived for what at the time seemed like
an eternity, but was barely 15 years. To Pennant-Rea, its
chosen course - illegal, scorning international opinion,
defying economic sanctions, suppressing opposition at home -
simply set the tone for Zimbabwe's recent disastrous years
under Robert Mugabe. UDI destroyed any chance of peaceful
progress to majority rule and economic sanity. Pennant-Rea
and his family left Rhodesia with £100 each, the maximum
allowed by Smith's exchange controls, and arrived in England
in March 1966. He was 51, and had been away for 30 years.
Peter Pennant-Rea was born in London in August 1914, and
educated at Cheam and Stowe. He was fascinated by aircraft,
and in those days the only way to learn about aeronautical
engineering was to do it, so he became an apprentice with
the Hawker Aircraft Company. In 1934 he went to South Africa
to work for De Havilland, moved with it to Southern
Rhodesia, met his future bride and settled down.
When Britain declared war on Germany, he joined the RAF as
an engineer, spending the early war years at RAF training
schools in Rhodesia and was then posted to Britain in 1943.
He ended the war as a squadron leader and returned to
Rhodesia.
This was a time of exhilarating growth in air transport
throughout central and southern Africa. When the Federation
of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formed in 1952, Pennant-Rea
joined the Federal Department of Civil Aviation, in time
becoming deputy-director.
After the dissolution of the federation in 1963, he was made
director of civil aviation in Rhodesia for the two difficult
years leading to UDI. He was totally out of sympathy with
the Rhodesian Front, and for him UDI killed any chance of
what he called "good government": honest, effective, lawful.
He spent the rest of his life in England, the place he
always knew was home. He was offered a relatively junior job
in Whitehall, insulting, he thought, and anyway boring - so
he looked elsewhere.
He joined the aviation division of Smiths Industries (he
loved that irony), revived old friendships and made many
more, and revelled in his family. His wife Pauline, to whom
he was married for 65 years, died in 2004. Thereafter he
moved to a care home in the Cotswolds. To the end he was
engaging, funny and modest.
He is survived by two daughters and a son.
Peter Pennant-Rea, aeronautical engineer and Rhodesian civil
servant, was born on August 1, 1914. He died on March 13,
2007, aged 92
Louis Epstein
: From The Times
: March 21, 2007
:
: Peter Pennant-Rea
His middle name was Athelwold.
: Rhodesian official who left the country with GBP100 rather
: than serve Ian Smith's white rebel regime
:
: When Ian Smith made his Unilateral Declaration of
: Independence on November 11, l965, Peter Pennant-Rea was one
: of only three Rhodesian civil servants who immediately left
: their posts. As director of civil aviation, he refused to
: take an order from the Minister of Transport imposing a ban
: on all flights in Rhodesian air-space.
:
: His constitutional allegiance was to the Governor of
: Rhodesia, Sir Humphrey Gibbs, who had just dismissed all the
: ministers. In the confusion of that fateful afternoon,
: Pennant-Rea was escorted from his office, his principles
: firm but his future precarious.
:
: The Smith regime survived for what at the time seemed like
: an eternity, but was barely 15 years. To Pennant-Rea, its
: chosen course - illegal, scorning international opinion,
: defying economic sanctions, suppressing opposition at home -
: simply set the tone for Zimbabwe's recent disastrous years
: under Robert Mugabe. UDI destroyed any chance of peaceful
: progress to majority rule and economic sanity. Pennant-Rea
: and his family left Rhodesia with GBP100 each, the maximum
The son being the only person named Pennant-Rea I had ever heard of,
former ECONOMIST editor and Deputy Governor of the Bank of England
Rupert Pennant-Rea...I wonder why the obit doesn't bother to name
him.
: Peter Pennant-Rea, aeronautical engineer and Rhodesian civil
: servant, was born on August 1, 1914. He died on March 13,
: 2007, aged 92
-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.