#11879, Dayrell Reed OAKLEY-HILL

D O-H spent most of his life in Albania leaving us a record in his book 'An Englishman in Albania' published in 2002. His son, David reports as follows: "My father, Dayrell Reed Oakley-Hill inherited his forenames from 2 fascinating families. He had 3 sisters and a brother. His mother, Katie, the children and her mother, Marianne escaped from the Boer War when he was a baby and settled in Bedford, while his father, Archie, a civil servant, remained in South Africa. My father was aged 8 when he first met his father, when he came to Britain for a month and took them on holiday in Malvern". His book is in the Trust Library.

Col. Oakley-Hill was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the Indian Army upon leaving the RMA Sandhurst on 27th October 1916. He served with the Gurkhas in Mesopotamia from 1917 to 1921 returning briefly to India before coming back to England in 1922.
He was deputy to General Percy, who with a team of British officers ran the Albanian Gendarmerie (Police) from 1929 to 1938. (The British withdrew in October 1938). Oakley-Hill was Inspector General of the Gendarmerie for the last 3 years and interpreter for King Zog.

On the outbreak of WWII he was appointed head of the SOE office for Albania, in the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade. He was given up to the Germans by the US embassy in Belgrade and imprisoned in Austria for two and a half years, but as an officer was treated fairly well. Released on medical grounds in 1943, he was asked in 1944 to head the UNRRA mission to Tirana, based in Bari, Italy.

As Secretary of the Anglo-Albanian Association he helped Albanian refugees who had escaped the communist regime of Enver Hoxha, to England with jobs and housing. .