Ethiopian Famine Relief

His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, 

Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, 

King of Kings of Ethiopia, 

Elect of God".

Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael

(23 July 1892 – 27 August 1975)

The Emperor sent aid to the British government in 1947 when Britain was affected by heavy flooding. 

His letter to Lord Meork, National Distress Fund, London said, "even though We are busy of helping our people who didn't recover from the crises of the war, We heard that your fertile and beautiful country is devastated by the unusually heavy rain, and your request for aid. "Therefore, We are sending small amount of money, about one thousand pounds through our embassy to show our sympathy and cooperation."

Haile Selassie was known as a child as Lij Tafari Makonnen

Lij translates to "child", and serves to indicate that a youth is of noble blood. His given name, Tafari, means "one who is respected or feared". Like most Ethiopians, his personal name Tafari is followed by that of his father Makonnen and rarely that of his grandfather Woldemikael. His Ge'ez name, Haile Selassie was given to him at his infant baptism and adopted again as part of his regnal name in 1930.

As Governor of Harer, he became known as Ras Teferi Makonnen. Ras translates to "head" and is a rank of nobility equivalent to Duke; though it is often rendered in translation as "prince". In 1916, Empress Zewditu I appointed him to the position of Balemulu Silt'an Enderase (Regent Plenipotentiary). In 1928, she granted him the throne of Shoa, elevating his title to Negus or "King".

On 2 November 1930, after the death of Empress Zewditu, Ras Tafari was crowned King of Kings, often rendered imprecisely in English as "Emperor".

Upon his ascension, he took as his regnal name Haile Selassie I. Haile means in Ge'ez "Power of" and Selassie means trinity—therefore Haile Selassie roughly translates to "Power of the Trinity".

Haile Selassie's full title in office was "His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, King of Kings of Ethiopia, Elect of God".

This title reflects Ethiopian dynastic traditions, which hold that all monarchs must trace their lineage back to Menelik I, who in the Ethiopian tradition was the offspring of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

To Ethiopians, Haile Selassie has been known by many names, including Janhoy, Talaqu Meri, and Abba Tekel.

The Rastafari movement employs many of these appellations, also referring to him as Jah, Jah Rastafari, and HIM (the abbreviation of "His Imperial Majesty").

• Thousands of people cut off in their villages by snowdrifts up to seven metres deep.
• Frozen rivers, lakes and even blocks of ice at sea.
• Snow covering most of the land every day for more than two months. 

Weather Chart

A low near the channel islands and high over southern Scandinavia, a typical pressure situation during the 1947 winter. Occlusion giving snow over southern counties of England.

Serious snowfall in the winter of 1947

Thousands of people were cut off for days by snowdrifts up to seven metres deep during the winter of 1947, which saw exceptional snowfall. Supplies had to be flown in by helicopter to many villages, and the armed forces were called in to help clear roads and railways.

Between January and March that year, snow fell every day somewhere in the country for 55 days straight. Much of this settled because temperatures stayed very low, just above freezing most days.

No-one expected this winter to be severe, as January started with very mild temperatures at up to 14 °C recorded. This was soon to change, however. An area of high pressure moved over southern Scandinavia, setting up a weather pattern which dominated the UK for the rest of the month. The first snow came on 23 January, falling heavily over southern England. Blizzard conditions occurred across the south-west of England, leaving many villages in Devon isolated.

The cold, snowy weather continued through February and into March. Any breaks in the cold weather were short-lived.

• In February, the temperature at Kew Observatory did not go over 4.4 °C and the night minimum temperature only went above 0 °C twice.
• The mean maximum temperature for the month was 0.5 °C (6.9 °C below average) and the mean minimum was -2.7 °C (4.6 °C below average).
• Mean minimum temperatures were more than 4 °C below average everywhere in southern England, and almost 6 °C below average in some places.

February 1947 was the coldest February on record in many places. One notable feature of this month was the lack of precipitation in parts of western Scotland. Because of the persistent anti-cyclonic conditions, some places that were normally very wet had no rain at all. A completely dry month in western Scotland is unusual. It was unprecedented in February.

Another unusual feature of February 1947 was the lack of sunshine in the Midlands and south of England - a complete contrast to the north-west of Scotland, where the weather was unusually sunny.

• At Kew, Nottingham and Edgbaston, there was no sun on 22 of the month's 28 days.
• Most of the Midlands and southern England had sunshine totals about 40% of the average.

When skies did clear, night-time temperatures plunged. Woburn in Bedfordshire registered a low of of -21 °C early on 25 February.

If February hadn't been bad enough, March was even worse. In the first half of the month, there were strong gales and heavy snowstorms, making for blizzard conditions. On 4 and 5 March, heavy snow fell over most of England and Wales, with severe snow drifts forming. On 6 March, drifts were five metres deep in the Pennines and three metres deep in the Chilterns.

On 10 and 11 March Scotland had its heaviest snowfall of the winter, with snow drifts up to seven metres deep reported by 12 March. The snowstorm heading over Scotland was to be the last over the UK for this cold spell, however. As it moved away, temperatures were already rising in the very south west of the UK. Temperatures rapidly got up to about 10 °C, and the leftover snow began to thaw rapidly. This created a serious problem. The ground was still frozen solid due to the weeks of cold weather, leaving the melting snow with nowhere to go.

As the warmer weather moved across the UK, the melt-water poured into rivers and caused many to burst their banks. Flooding problems began to spread across England from the south west, as a new depression came in from the Atlantic, bringing rain and severe gales. During the afternoon of 16 March, winds over southern England averaged about 50 knots, with gusts of 80-90 knots. This caused damage to buildings and caused even more problems as the strong winds created waves which pounded and even broke some flood defences.

River levels continued to rise. The banks of the Trent burst at Nottingham on 18 March and hundreds of homes were flooded, many to first floor level. While floods in the south-west England began to subside, other rivers continued to rise in eastern England. The Wharfe, Derwent, Aire and Ouse all burst their banks and flooded a huge area of southern Yorkshire. The town of Selby was almost completely under water. Only the ancient abbey and a few streets around the market place escaped inundation. Seventy per cent of all houses in the town were flooded. The flooding issues continued into the spring, bringing a nasty end to the cold and snowy winter.

Snoek