A local man discovers that his father was a spy during the war. Man discovers father's WW2 spy past I can only find one book by the author (Chris Robbilard - From Barry to Bari) but would be interested to read the one above if anyone knows how to get it.
From panel from my photo collection of Brookwood Memorial Captain JONES, SYDNEY CHARLES Service Number 125265 Died 06/09/1944 Aged 52 Royal Engineers attd. Special Operations Executive M B E Son of Charles and Emily Louise Jones; husband of Rose-Marie Jones. Commemorated at BROOKWOOD 1939-1945 MEMORIAL Location: Surrey, United Kingdom Number of casualties: 3417 Cemetery/memorial reference: Panel 4. Column 3.
One of those odd articles that seems to mix things up. Not sure why 'MI5' would be sending the son his father's SOE records in 2016 when they have been open at the National Archives since 2003: Sidney Charles JONES - born 25.11.1902, died 06.09.1944 | The National Archives And then the article fails to give any details about Sydney Jones' activities in France, how he earned his MBE, or gives the title of the book. Would be interesting to learn more about him. Lee
SURNAME Jones FORENAME Sydney Charles UNIT F Section SOE RANK Captain NUMBER 125265 DATE OF DEATH 6th September 1944 AGE 52 GRAVESITE Brookwood Memorial,Surrey Panel 4 Column 3 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION parent unit Royal Engineers born 25.11.1902 France resided France son of Charles and Emily Louise Jones husband of Rose-Marie Jones codename Felix and Elie Inventor Circuit (Prosper sub circuit) (organiser and arms instructor) awards M.B.E.,C.deG.,M.R.F. arrested 19.11.1943 executed Mauthausen,Austria F Section Memorial,Valencay,France Viewing Image: S. Jones - Special Forces - Roll Of Honour
I didn't know that Lee. I just assumed that he had applied for his service records and that these were sent when they could be released. I further assumed that the detail had been omitted to whet ones appetite! Was it unusual for someone of his age to be involved in Special Ops? Has anybody read the other Chris Robbilard book?
One of a number of a large group of SOE operatives,both F Section and Dutch Sections, who were murdered at Mauthausen....there is a memorial plaque to the group on the back wall which overlooks the camp entry courtyard. There used to be a comprehensive document on SOE strength,entitled The Most Secret List of SOE Agents which was generated by Eliah Meyer and freely available on the internet ........unfortunately it is now in the possession of Academia Edu Sydney Jones (field names "Elie" and "Felix" ) was betrayed by Roger Bardet who was also involved in the betrayal of Peter Churchill /Odette Sansom with Abwehr Sqt Hugo Bleicher acting as the controller.Assuming the fictitious. character of an anti Nazi as "Colonel Henri",Bleicher was able to deceive Henri Frager who became another victim of Bardet's treachery. From Bardet's treachery, Bleicher became more successful in rounding up SOE agents. Sydney Jones doubted the loyalty of Bardet too late and was arrested as "Elie" while in bed early in the morning at his apartment...a brave man Bleicher recorded, who took his arrest calmly and said "It's a pity,it's such a nice day today" Postwar Bleicher was found by the British authorities to have no war crimes case to answer and and after interrogations resumed civilian life as a tobacconist back in Germany. Bardet was put on trial and surprisingly escaped the death sentence when his sentence was reprieved and commuted to 20 years imprisonment...freed in 1955,he was freed to live under an assumed name.
Thanks Harry. Chris Robbilard's other book is about his own father which also looks quite interesting. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Barry-Bari...pID=51ZlC174tnL&preST=_SY445_QL70_&dpSrc=srch
I think the author is Chris Robillard not Robbilard. Slap dash reporting by BBC; they've used both spellings in the article. Tim
A much better write up in The Times today: Top secret file reveals father’s heroic service The book is called 'Captain & Mrs Jones'.
Thanks Lee - for some reason I cannot subscribe to that but I'll have another look for the book. Interesting, in the bit that I could read, that he says that the papers arrived out of the blue. Anybody any idea why that might have been? Incidentally his first book is very expensive for a paperback. Thanks too for the other comments. I hadn't noticed the discrepancies in the spelling of the author's surname nor his Dad's age.
To confirm dates on one of the forms in the photo in BBC article you can just make out birth as 25 Nov 1902, Paris. CWGC have age wrong as well: Casualty Tim
