Penfold's tenure in Ethiopia coincided with the Eritrean War of Independence, which Penfold was responsible for monitoring. To that end, he was required to covertly meet with Eritrean informants, sometimes smuggling them back to the British compound in the boot of his car, to keep up to date on the progress of the war. Penfold was also in the country during the Ethiopian Revolution, in which the pro-Western Emperor Haile Selassie I was overthrown by a faction of the military—which became the Derg—sympathetic to the Soviet Union. He remained in Ethiopia until 1978, when he was sent to Port of Spain as information officer, with responsibility for editing a magazine aimed at promoting British trade. Penfold returned to London in 1981, serving as first secretary in the West Africa Department of the FCO. At the time, the FCO had two career "streams"—one for non-graduates and a faster one for university graduates—and during his time in the West Africa Department, Penfold "bridged" into the faster stream.