Routine Adventure
These images were found on Ebay and show the last days of the British Empire in the Western Aden Protectorate. The exit from Aden represented a shift in approaches to Empire. The proxy war in the mountains of Yemen led to the privatisation of security and military expertise under Lieutenant-Colonel David Sterling, whilst the expulsion of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company by democratically elected Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran wrankled feathers and altered Western approaches to the region and it’s oil. From this point and the disasterous invasion of the Suez canal the British government looked to remove national responsibility and its expense in favour of the private distribution and selling of expertise that would bring money into the national purse rather than the opposite.