Looking for information on Basil William Seymour Irwin who I believe was the officer for who my father William Gerald Denley was his wireless operator in Italy and possibly before this in Yugoslavia. Peter
Some info here, Basil William Seymour Irwin - Special Forces - Roll Of Honour - Archive and also this although the audio is not available at the moment. IWM interview | Imperial War Museums
Was a member of the London Irish Rifles awarded the MC and the Italian Partisan Medal. His SOE Cairo Symbol was D/H 675 His SOE training was carried out at ME102 in Haifa and his parachute training at Ramat David. In Yugoslavia he was with 38 Military Mission His Italian Mission was code-named CLOVER III His pre war employment was as a bank official.
London Irish Rifles attached No 1 Special Force, Canadian Military Forces The National Archives | DocumentsOnline | Image Details
The Canadian Military Forces seems an error on the part of the catalogers CMF on his SOE file stands for Central Mediterranean Forces
73300 Captain E W S Irwin was on parachute course 86 at Ramat David which started on 17/12/1943. Hope this is of some use. Cheers Arnhem
Many thanks to all for your replies and looking forward to doing more research on all the new details. will keep you updated. Peter
Have found a ref to Basil Irwin which states; "Joined the London Irish Rifles of the Territorial Army and served in the infantry until 1943, when he joined SOE Cairo. Parachuted into Jugoslavia to Basil Davidson's mission in April 1944 and to Liguria for operations in the Oltre Po near Pavia on 8th March 1945 along with his wireless operator W.G.Denley" This gives us a course to find out dads Italy details but I also found an article about a Roy Wardle who describes his story of going into Yugoslavia as the W/O with Irwin from April 3rd 1944 and were there for 10 months in total "trying to get up near the Danube oil barges" but never got there because of to many Germans in Fruska Gora. So it seems that when they returned to Italy Wardle then volunteered to go to the far east to report on Japanese shipping. It would seem that dad then replaced him with Irwin. So we have now to try and discover which agent he was with in Yugoslavia. Wishing you all a Happy Xmas and New Year and hopfully may meet some of you at NA one day. Peter
I knew Basil around 1982-84 approx. He was running a small bond portfolio (no idea who for) and also acting as a consultant for Pinchin Denny, a Stock jobbing firm that had taken up gilt trading a few years earlier. My boss and I were moved into his office - but mostly we were there at different times of the day. He did give me, as a young lad, a 2 hour talk/lecture on the gilt market which was good value. I can't say anyone knew much about him, but the word did get around that he had been SOE. By about 1984 our dealers had no more need of his help and he moved on - no idea where. I saw somewhere on the internet that he died in 2000.
Ireland, Civil Registration Births Index, 1864-1958 Name: Basil W S Irwin Date of Registration: Apr-May-Jun 1919 Registration district: Dublin South Birth Country: Ireland Volume: 2 Page: 661 FHL Film Number: 101078 Name: Basil Wm Seymour Irwin Gender: Male Age: 6 Birth Date: abt 1919 Departure Date: 7 Sep 1925 Port of Departure: Avonmouth, England Destination Port: Kingston, Jamaica Ship Name: Bayano Search Ship Database: Search for the Bayano in the 'Passenger Ships and Images' database Shipping line: Elders and Fyffes, Limited Official Number: 141870 Master: F H Swain England & Wales, Death Index, 1916-2007 Name: Basil William S Irwin Birth Date: 27 May 1919 Date of Registration: Nov 2000 Age at Death: 81 Registration district: Uttlesford Inferred County: Essex Register Number: 36 District and Subdistrict: 4781 Entry Number: 66 TD
Hi, I realise this is a very old post but i have a memoir written by Roy Wardle in which he writes about being in Yugoslavia with Basil Irwin. "After two days MAJ .DAVIDSON, STAN and TED HOWE left us to make their way east to the FRUSKA GORA area and the DANUBE. CAPT .IRWIN and I with STEVE SERDA would take their place with 16th DIV to arrange the delivery by air drops of arms and supplies through contact with special forces I33 H.Q. in BARI. we had dropped into the province of BOSNIA in the area around the town TUZLA." Roy was then sent back to Italy for a week around 7th July before being flown back and parachuting to an area between the Sava and Drini rivers with Basil Irwin and Steve Serda. He stayed in the area until some time around christmas where he was returned again to Italy and then on to the far east to monitor japanese shipping.The memoir peters out a bit at this point unfortunately. Unfortunately i can't see any mention of William Denley, But so many are just nicknames in the memoirs it is hard to say. Roy's name throughout most of the war was Bob.
