Mad Mitch and the ‘last battle of the British Empire’ in Yemen: How WWII hero led troops as they stormed the rebel-held Aden in successful 1967 raid… but controversial officer was not decorated on his return to Britain

With his kilt proving his proud Scottish ancestry, the diminutive Lieutenant-Colonel ‘Mad Mitch’ Mitchell was the hero of the ‘last battle of the British Empire’.

Following Britain’s air strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last week, some on social media have recalled the fearless soldier’s exploits.

The 5ft6in Second World War veteran and hero of campaigns in Korea, Borneo and Cyprus, was called back in to action in July 1967, when British rule in what is now Yemen came under serious challenge.

He led a unit of just 15 members of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders to suppress an Arab nationalist rebellion in the city of Aden’s Crater district.

In a surprise nighttime raid, Mitchell’s men quashed the uprising without the loss of a single British life, whilst two Arab snipers were killed. 

The no-nonsense Lieutenant, who went on to warn the rebels that they would ‘get their head blown off’ if they started trouble again, then ruled the district for five months, before British troops pulled out of Yemen altogether. 

But on his return to the UK, the controversial officer received scant recognition for his exploits, getting only a ‘mention in dispatches’ as others were awarded prestigious medals for the same campaign. 

Mitchell, who resigned his commission a few months later when it emerged the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders were to be disbanded, went on to found the anti-land mine charity the Halo Trust.

The organisation became high profile thanks to the interest of Princess Diana and, more recently, Prince Harry, who became its patron in 2013. 

The city of Aden and its surrounding areas, which had been part of the British Empire since 1839, had been given a degree of self-government in 1962.

But, from 1963, it became the subject to insurgency from Arab nationalist groups in what became known as the Aden Emergency.

In the summer of 1967, the Argylls had been due to assume responsibility for Aden’s Crater district.

But, before they arrived, members of the local police force mutinied and seized control of the district and killed members of the Northumberland Fusiliers. 

For two weeks, they ambushed British patrols and caused consternation among politicians and the Army’s top brass, so Mitchell was sent in to restore order. 

Afterwards, he sent his pipers were sent to rooftops to play Scotland The Brave and The Barren Rocks Of Aden. 

His band of 15 men were part of the Argylls’ 110-strong B Company. After the night raid, the men smashed their way into Aden’s Chartered Bank and set up an observation post on the roof.

Colonel Mitchell told the Daily Mail after order was restored: ‘This is the moment we have been waiting for… I have been given permission for the first time here to use all my weaponry, including the 76millimetre guns on the Saladins.’

And, speaking to a news camera in Aden, he said with characteristic bluntness: ‘We are a very mean lot. 

‘We were very fair, you know, but if anyone starts any trouble they will just their head blown off.’ 

Colonel Mitchell later wrote that, whilst he had been ordered to ‘play it cool’, he had decided on a ‘display of good old fashioned British grit’.

However, back in Britain, military officials and Harold Wilson’s Labour government were anxious to display a new image for the country, and Colonel Mitchell’s exploits ran counter to that.

When honours for service in Aden were handed out in January 1968 – after the People’s Republic of South Yemen had been formed Colonel Mitchell was largely overlooked.

This was despite the fact that ten Military Crosses and eight Military Medals were among the gongs given to his comrades.

Later in 1968, with reports circling about the disbanding of the Argylls, Colonel Mitchell resigned his commission.

His supporters were outspoken in their praise of him.

One said: ‘The Colonel is the greatest man I’ve ever known. I suppose he felt he could no longer go on being led down by those Whitehall wallahs.’ 

He went on to win a Conservative seat in Parliament at the 1970 election, but served for just four years before standing down.

In 1989, he co-founded the Halo Trust.  

Working from a spare room in his flat in central London, Mitchell devoted himself to building up the charity as it worked to clear land mines in countries including Cambodia, Mozambique, Angola and Afghanistan.

Mitchell had been inspired to set up the Halo Trust after witnessing the horror of land mines when visiting Soviet-occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s.  

After his death in 1996 following a short illness, his son Angus paid tribute to his campaign.

He said: ‘He had probably seen more of war than any member of his generation. 

‘He was always a maverick figure and in his final years he chose to do the dirtiest and most dangerous job left on earth – clearing up the lethal debris of war.

‘It became an obsession with him and it is something the British can be proud of.’