Telegraph - 27 Nov 2001 - Noel Forde, who has died aged 93, enjoyed a career in various outposts of the British Empire as a colonial policeman, farmer, gold prospector, steeplechase jockey and big-game hunter.

Noel Henry Boys Forde was born on Christmas Day 1907 at Wimbledon, into a family of Irish descent. From Lancing, where he was a contemporary of Evelyn Waugh, he went to Sandhurst, but then elected to try life in the colonies instead of the Army. For a time he was manager of a 12,000-acre farm near Gilgil, in Kenya, but he lost his job during the Depression, and at one stage was reduced to selling firewood on the streets of Nairobi, his only remaining possessions being two racehorses in training.

Eventually, he signed up as assistant to one of the greatest big-game hunters of the day, Jock Hunter. On one occasion, he and Hunter were near Lake Magadi, pursuing two lions that had been wounded by a drunken tycoon. When Hunter instructed Forde to deal with one of the animals, it charged. Finding that the safety catch on his rifle was still on, Forde threw himself to the ground; the lion soared over him, and stunned itself against the side of a truck, giving Forde the chance to finish him off. In the meantime, Forde had been pursuing his steeplechasing career. In 1930 he rode his horse King Stork in the Kenya Grand National; he put up 8 lb overweight, but was still so weakened by "wasting" to shed weight from his 6 ft 3 in frame that he was unable to hold on to the reins. He still managed to finish third.  Forde next decided to join a gold rush in northern Kenya. The money he made from this enterprise evaporated when he invested the lot on King Stork in a race at Nairobi - the horse (which later won the Kenya Grand National under different ownership) finished last, and lame, and Forde felt it was time to leave Kenya.

Still keen to serve abroad, in 1932 Forde joined the ranks of the Palestine Police, the armed gendarmerie attempting to keep the peace between Jewish immigrants and the Arabs of Palestine. Fortunately, the Inspector-General, R G B Spicer, had won money on King Stork while Commissioner of Police in Nairobi and made it clear that, with his Sandhurst training, if Forde learned Arabic, he would get rapid promotion. A spell on investigations at Hebron was followed by his first command as acting Assistant Superintendent at Beersheba with a Camel Corps of 120 Bedouin mounted on camels. His "patch" ranged as far as Akaba and Eilat, then just a tent and a flagpole on the beach. It was an area of desert half the size of Palestine.

Forde introduced the initially reluctant Bedouin to "Cossack" camel-riding. They soon became highly skilled at the tricks, even putting on performances in Jerusalem. Being able to stand in the saddle also had tactical advantages on patrol. For the next six years Forde was up against the murder and mayhem of the first Intifada. His postings were in the Arab areas which included Tiberias, Nazareth and, finally, Jenin. Jewish immigration was accelerating and Palestine was in a state of constant insurrection, with bombings, murders and ambushes a daily occurrence. The more serious incidents involved the British Army and the Trans-Jordan Frontier Force.

Battles, according to Forde, were the enjoyable part of his duties; it was the clearing up of the bodies and the subsequent paperwork that he found onerous.  Although Forde was involved in many executions, he grew to disapprove of the death penalty, pointing out that men could be hanged merely for possessing a handful of ammunition. He also protested against the policy of blowing up houses as a reprisal for attacks against the security forces.

Forde was present at the riots at Jaffa in 1933 and 1935, and guided the Coldstream Guards and Northumberland Fusiliers when they recaptured the Old City of Jerusalem in 1938.  In 1939, just before the outbreak of war, Forde was posted as a Senior Superintendent to the Cameroons. Here there was less action, but the rainforest provided other difficulties: some outposts were accessible only by canoe, while others, even if only a mile away, could take a day to reach through the jungle. Catching smugglers and rounding up German nationals were the principal tasks. Forde later commented that he suffered continually from malaria and jungle fevers, while the rank and file were debilitated with venereal disease caught from the barrack prostitutes - whom he kicked out on his arrival. Forde wished desperately to join the Army, but was repeatedly refused, his being a reserved occupation. He had to settle for the Royal West African Frontier Force.

His next posting was to the Nigeria Police, in the south of the country, where murder, witchcraft and even cannibalism were rife. From then on, his postings were in the Northern Province, high open country far more congenial to a keen horseman.

The worst hotspot was Kano, scene of several bloody riots. On one occasion Forde confronted the machete-wielding ringleader and felled him with a single blow from his ashplant, stopping the riot in its tracks. He retired in 1957 shortly before independence. Forde was a man of unshakable integrity. He said that in all his career nobody ever dared offer him a bribe. His courtesy and impish sense of humour made him many friends, even if he could feel frustrated when his high standards were not met by some of his subordinates. He was a keen sportsman. His early love was cricket, and his interest in hunting and racing led him to enjoy polo, which he came to consider the best ball game of all. He boxed at light-heavyweight for the Palestine Police.

Forde was a very keen shot and found that a love of shooting transcended many boundaries. When he was a young constable in Palestine he found that the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, was happy to go and shoot quail with him. In Nigeria he discovered vast areas near Lake Chad teeming with snipe and wildfowl, and he introduced the Sardauna of Sokoto, later Prime Minister of Northern Nigeria, to this sport and they became close friends. Forde spent a long retirement in Wiltshire and then Norfolk. Until his death he kept closely in touch with his former head servant and his family in Nigeria. He married, in 1946, Pamela Elwes, a widow with a daughter. They had a further daughter and two sons.