Colonel Shefti Shatku

In 1923 the British Minister in Albania approached Lt-Col W.F. Stirling to be adviser to the Minister of the Interior, Ahmet Zogu. In May 1923 he embarked for Duress along with his wife and daughter Elspeth, her nurse and three dogs. After Fan Noli took over the government and Ahmet Zogu fled, Stirling was asked to stay on. Ahmet Zogu returned at the end of the year and a new constitution was drawn up with Stirley’s assistance. A Cossack - one of Zog’s White Russians – joined Stirling as his groom.

President Zogu admired the way British had controlled India, and in 1925 he asked Stirling, his adviser on internal administration, to be Inspector General of his gendarmerie, and asked him to go to England and recruit a group of British army officers to form an inspectorate for his gendarmerie. Stirling interviewed many men, mainly retired Army officers, and recruited ten who came recommended. These men went in a private capacity. Stirling divided the country into four areas each with two British inspectors. Within a year the country was more peaceful.

In 1926 Stirling told King Zog that he should appoint someone to do the job full-time. He appointed General Sir Jocelyn Percy. Meanwhile Stirling stayed on as Zog’s adviser until 1931 when he returned to England. He wrote an autobiography called “Safety Firsty” which was published in 1953. He wrote: “Of all the statesmen in the Middle East – and I have met most of them – I consider Zog to be by far the most brilliant, the most cultured and the most far-seeing."

Percy was Inspector General of the Gendarmerie and Chief of the Gendarmie Department of the Royal Court. He recruited Dodgson, Bredin and Oakley-Hill.

Oaklley-Hill was recruited by General Percy and stayed in Albania from 1929 to 1938. He learnt fluent Albanian and would translate for King Zog when he was with General Percy.

In 1930 General Percy also recruited Coleman-Smith, a retired RASC, and Thaxted Cripps from Anglo-Persian Oil.

After the war Colonel Oakley-Hill kept his interest in Albanian affairs and became chairman of the Anglo-Albanian Association. He died in London aged 87 in 1985. His Albanian memoirs were published as An Englishman in Albania Memoirs of a British Officer 1929-1955, by the Centre for Albanian Studies in 2002.

Stirling

Gendarmerie

Percy