Arfa, Hasan

Hasan Arfa (1895 – 1984) was an Iranian general and ambassador of the Pahlavi dynasty. Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, of an Anglo-Russian mother and Iranian father, Hasan Arfa was a career military officer in the Iranian army and who achieved the rank of general. His mother, Ludmilla Jervis, was the daughter of a British diplomat and a Russian woman of the aristocratic Demidov family. His father, Reza Khan Arfa al-Dowleh, was an Iranian diplomat serving as counsul-general in Tbilisi; he later served as ambassador to Turkey and Russia. Arfa's parents divorced in 1900, after Arfa and his mother had moved to Paris, but the senior Arfa alDowleh provided comfortable homes in Europe for them.

Arfa received his early education from tutors and later attended private schools in Switzerland, Paris, and Monaco. In 1914, he joined the Iranian Imperial Guards, and during the early part of World War I that organization sponsored his training as a cavalry officer with the Swiss army. He joined the Iranian gendarmerie in 1920, and later, the army. As a cavalry officer, he campaigned against rebellious tribes in Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Lorestan, and during the 1920s and rose rapidly through the ranks. (wikipedia, 2011-03-01)