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Maurice Buckmaster

December 15, 2023

Colonel Maurice James Buckmaster OBE (11 January 1902 – 17 April 1992) was the leader of the French section of Special Operations Executive and was awarded the Croix de Guerre.

Maurice Buckmaster
Born(1902-01-11)11 January 1902
Brereton, Staffordshire
Died17 April 1992(1992-04-17) (aged 90)
Forest Row, East Sussex
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service1940–46
RankColonel
Commands heldF-Section, Special Operations Executive
Battles/warsWorld War II
RelationsMay Dorothy Steed, 3 children; Anna Cecilia (née Reinstein)

Apart from his war service, he was a corporate manager with the French branch of the Ford Motor Company, in the postwar years serving in Dagenham. He wrote two memoirs about his service with the Resistance during World War II.

Early life and career edit

Maurice Buckmaster was born on 11 January 1902 at Ravenhill, Brereton, Rugeley, Staffordshire, England, the son of Eva Matilda (daughter of R. B. Nason, M.D., of Nuneaton, Warwickshire)[1][2] and Henry James Buckmaster, a company director running a brewery. He grew up at Marsham Lodge, Gerrards Cross.[3] He was educated at Eton College.[4]

He showed an academic bent and gained an exhibition to study Classics at the University of Oxford, but was unable to take this up as his father went bankrupt. After financial problems in early 1912,[5] his father received orders under the "Bankruptcy Act of 1914" in June 1921.[6]

He was allowed to stay on at Eton for a final year through a scholarship and by tutoring younger boys, and from that point onwards was entirely dependent on his own resources. After doing some teaching he made his way to France where he soon became almost fluent in the language and gained a reporter's position with the French newspaper Le Matin.[7] Later he moved into banking for six years where, at Schroeders, he met his future wife May Dorothy Steed (born in Lima in 1904). They married in 1927 and had three children, Michael (known as Tim) in 1930, Sybil Romola (in Paris, 1933) and Mary (known as Tina) back in London in 1935. In 1929, he was employed to help establish branches of the Ford Motor Company in several European countries, eventually becoming a senior manager with the French branch of the American Ford Motor Company.[citation needed] While travelling throughout France in this role he gained very considerable knowledge of the towns and the road network.[citation needed]

Early wartime service edit

When World War II broke out, Buckmaster returned to England. He joined the British Army and on 14 October 1939 was commissioned to the General List as a lieutenant (service number 101877).[8] He joined the British Expeditionary Force and fought in France until the retreat to Dunkirk being on one of the last boats out on 2 June 1940. On his return from France Buckmaster transferred from the General List to the Intelligence Corps with effect from 15 July 1940 and was promoted to temporary captain.[9]

Following this, he was an intelligence officer with 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, which he decided to leave after the division was scheduled to move to the Middle East. He was involved in Operation Menace in September 1940, a failed attempt to seize the port of Dakar in former French territory.[10][11] Following a meeting with Gerald Templer, he was recruited into Special Operations Executive (SOE), or MO1(SP).[12] On 20 December 1940 his services in the Battle of France and at Dunkirk were recognized and he was Mentioned in Despatches. The official record shows his rank as second lieutenant acting major.[13]

Special Operations Executive edit

On 17 March 1941, Buckmaster was appointed to SOE's French section and following an attachment to T-Section, the Belgian Section, to assist Hardy Amies from July 1941, he was noted as a future head of F Section.[14] This section recruited agents from among those Frenchmen who had not chosen to directly ally themselves with General Charles de Gaulle. A separate section of SOE, RF Section, worked with those members of the French Resistance who were clearly Gaullist in their loyalties. There was often considerable tension between F and RF sections.[15]

In September 1941 succeeding the civilian Henry R. Marriott (a director of Courtaulds French Division), Major Buckmaster assumed command of F-Section supported by Nicholas Bodington working from an apartment in Orchard Court near Oxford Street. His task was to build an organization which could carry out sabotage and collect information about the enemy and provide money and equipment for the French resistance. Between 1941 and 1944 his organization placed 366 agents in France and set up nearly 50 networks.[16] The office later moved to 64 Baker Street, London.

In Chelsea, London in November 1941 he married Anna Cecilia Stevenson (née Reinstein). She was the daughter of a Bavarian German hairdresser brought up in East London, and the former wife of the barrister Melford Stevenson.[17]

At F Section Buckmaster worked closely with his assistant Vera Atkins, who was also the Section's intelligence officer and a spy mistress. During the war, the F Section handled more than 400 undercover agents, many of whom went missing. After the war, it was Atkins' task to find what happened to them, including agents she had trained. It turned out that Buckmaster had refused to believe, although shown evidence, that their network had been compromised, thus sending many agents to their arrests and deaths for over a year, despite warnings from agents.[18] During the war Buckmaster usually worked 16 to 18 hours per day and frequently more.

In the autumn of 1944 he was promoted to colonel and toured France giving lectures and delivering speeches in a mission based from the Hotel Cecil in Paris and known as "JUDEX" which simultaneously gave opportunity to clear up F-Section's circuits and networks.[19]

His wartime service was recognized by an award of the OBE, unusually in the Civil Division, on 3 January 1945, Colonel Buckmaster was discreetly listed as a "Civil Assistant" at the "War Office",[20] and a Croix de Guerre from the French.

At the end of the war Allied commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower said the section had helped shorten the war by six months. "It was the equivalent of 15 divisions," he said.[21] On 23 May 1947 the US Government awarded Buckmaster the Legion of Merit (Officer) which appeared in the London Gazette, he was listed as a colonel with the Intelligence Corps.[22]

After World War II edit

After the war, Buckmaster rejoined the Ford Motor Company, serving in Dagenham as director of public affairs. In 1946 and 1947, he wrote a series of eight articles on F Section for the now defunct Chambers Magazine, entitled They Came By Parachute. He wrote two memoirs, Specially Employed (1952) and They Fought Alone (1958). He was interviewed for the 1969 documentary The Sorrow and the Pity.[23]

In the official history of "SOE in France" (HMSO), a part of the series of campaign histories commissioned by the British government, author M.R.D. Foot wrote of Buckmaster: "He was a colourful and in many ways a controversial figure; he was not universally popular, but no better head for the section was ever in sight."[24] Buckmaster was an adviser on, and appeared as himself in, the film Odette, about Odette Sansom (then Odette Churchill, later Hallowes).

Maurice Buckmaster Lane, built on the former Joint Services School of Intelligence site in Ashford, Kent, is named after him.

Awards edit

References edit

  1. ^ Simkin, John (August 2014) [September 1997]. "Maurice Buckmaster". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  2. ^ Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, 1921, p. 288
  3. ^ England & Wales Census, 1911. Gerrards Cross- Buckmaster family
  4. ^ Spartacus International website; accessed 28 August 2017.
  5. ^ "No. 28587". The London Gazette. 5 March 1912. p. 1739.
  6. ^ "No. 13714". The London Gazette. 6 June 1921. p. 978.
  7. ^ Howarth (1980), p.135
  8. ^ "No. 34731". The London Gazette (Supplement). 10 November 1939. p. 7628.
  9. ^ "No. 34988". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 November 1940. p. 6484.
  10. ^ Howarth (1980), p.136-137
  11. ^ Foot (1966), p.151
  12. ^ National Archives, London. File HS 9/232/8 -Maurice Buckmaster
  13. ^ "No. 35020". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 December 1940. p. 7192.
  14. ^ Foot (1966), p. 179
  15. ^ Marks, Leo (1998). 'Between Silk and Cyanide'. London: Harper Collins; ISBN 0 00 255 944 7 pp. 30, 75, 167-68.
  16. ^ LaResistanceFrancaise - Maurice Buckmaster
  17. ^ Register of Marriages, December Quarter 1941, Chelsea, London.
  18. ^ A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE, Sarah Helm, Abacus, 2006, pages 295-96; ISBN 0349119368.
  19. ^ Foot (1966), pp. 44, 423
  20. ^ "No. 36869". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 1944. p. 121.
  21. ^ Los Angeles Times - Buckmaster Obituary 22/4/1992
  22. ^ "No. 37961". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 May 1947. p. 2287.
  23. ^ . British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 14 March 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  24. ^ Foot (1966), p. 179
  25. ^ "No. 35020". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 December 1940. p. 7192.
  26. ^ LaResistanceFrancaise - Maurice Buckmaster
  27. ^ Seattle Times - Obituary - MJ Buckmaster
  28. ^ LaResistanceFrancaise - Maurice Buckmaster
  29. ^ Seattle Times - Obituary - MJ Buckmaster
  30. ^ "No. 37961". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 May 1947. p. 2287.
  31. ^ Seattle Times - Obituary - MJ Buckmaster
  32. ^ National Archives, London. Document WO 373/148/19 -Legion of Honor US award
  33. ^ "No. 36869". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 1944. p. 121.

Bibliography edit

  • Patrick Howarth (1980). Undercover: The men and women of the SOE. Routledge. ISBN 0710005733.
  • Michael Richard Daniell Foot, SOE in France. An account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France, 1940–1944, London, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1966, 1968 ; Whitehall History Publishing, in association with Frank Cass, 2004. Official History of SOE in Europe..
  • André Gillois, L'Histoire secrète des Français à Londres, Le Cercle du nouveau Livre, Librairie Jules Taillandier, 1973.
  • Verity, Hugh (2013). We Landed by Moonlight. Crecy Publishing. ISBN 9780947554750.
  • M. R. D. Foot (2006). SOE in France. Routledge. ISBN 0415408008.

December 15, 2023
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This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Maurice Buckmaster news newspapers books scholar JSTOR December 2013 Learn how and when to remove this template message Colonel Maurice James Buckmaster OBE 11 January 1902 17 April 1992 was the leader of the French section of Special Operations Executive and was awarded the Croix de Guerre Maurice BuckmasterBorn 1902 01 11 11 January 1902Brereton StaffordshireDied17 April 1992 1992 04 17 aged 90 Forest Row East SussexAllegiance United KingdomService wbr branch British ArmyYears of service1940 46RankColonelCommands heldF Section Special Operations ExecutiveBattles warsWorld War IIRelationsMay Dorothy Steed 3 children Anna Cecilia nee Reinstein Apart from his war service he was a corporate manager with the French branch of the Ford Motor Company in the postwar years serving in Dagenham He wrote two memoirs about his service with the Resistance during World War II Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Early wartime service 3 Special Operations Executive 4 After World War II 5 Awards 6 References 7 BibliographyEarly life and career editMaurice Buckmaster was born on 11 January 1902 at Ravenhill Brereton Rugeley Staffordshire England the son of Eva Matilda daughter of R B Nason M D of Nuneaton Warwickshire 1 2 and Henry James Buckmaster a company director running a brewery He grew up at Marsham Lodge Gerrards Cross 3 He was educated at Eton College 4 He showed an academic bent and gained an exhibition to study Classics at the University of Oxford but was unable to take this up as his father went bankrupt After financial problems in early 1912 5 his father received orders under the Bankruptcy Act of 1914 in June 1921 6 He was allowed to stay on at Eton for a final year through a scholarship and by tutoring younger boys and from that point onwards was entirely dependent on his own resources After doing some teaching he made his way to France where he soon became almost fluent in the language and gained a reporter s position with the French newspaper Le Matin 7 Later he moved into banking for six years where at Schroeders he met his future wife May Dorothy Steed born in Lima in 1904 They married in 1927 and had three children Michael known as Tim in 1930 Sybil Romola in Paris 1933 and Mary known as Tina back in London in 1935 In 1929 he was employed to help establish branches of the Ford Motor Company in several European countries eventually becoming a senior manager with the French branch of the American Ford Motor Company citation needed While travelling throughout France in this role he gained very considerable knowledge of the towns and the road network citation needed Early wartime service editWhen World War II broke out Buckmaster returned to England He joined the British Army and on 14 October 1939 was commissioned to the General List as a lieutenant service number 101877 8 He joined the British Expeditionary Force and fought in France until the retreat to Dunkirk being on one of the last boats out on 2 June 1940 On his return from France Buckmaster transferred from the General List to the Intelligence Corps with effect from 15 July 1940 and was promoted to temporary captain 9 Following this he was an intelligence officer with 50th Northumbrian Infantry Division which he decided to leave after the division was scheduled to move to the Middle East He was involved in Operation Menace in September 1940 a failed attempt to seize the port of Dakar in former French territory 10 11 Following a meeting with Gerald Templer he was recruited into Special Operations Executive SOE or MO1 SP 12 On 20 December 1940 his services in the Battle of France and at Dunkirk were recognized and he was Mentioned in Despatches The official record shows his rank as second lieutenant acting major 13 Special Operations Executive editOn 17 March 1941 Buckmaster was appointed to SOE s French section and following an attachment to T Section the Belgian Section to assist Hardy Amies from July 1941 he was noted as a future head of F Section 14 This section recruited agents from among those Frenchmen who had not chosen to directly ally themselves with General Charles de Gaulle A separate section of SOE RF Section worked with those members of the French Resistance who were clearly Gaullist in their loyalties There was often considerable tension between F and RF sections 15 In September 1941 succeeding the civilian Henry R Marriott a director of Courtaulds French Division Major Buckmaster assumed command of F Section supported by Nicholas Bodington working from an apartment in Orchard Court near Oxford Street His task was to build an organization which could carry out sabotage and collect information about the enemy and provide money and equipment for the French resistance Between 1941 and 1944 his organization placed 366 agents in France and set up nearly 50 networks 16 The office later moved to 64 Baker Street London In Chelsea London in November 1941 he married Anna Cecilia Stevenson nee Reinstein She was the daughter of a Bavarian German hairdresser brought up in East London and the former wife of the barrister Melford Stevenson 17 At F Section Buckmaster worked closely with his assistant Vera Atkins who was also the Section s intelligence officer and a spy mistress During the war the F Section handled more than 400 undercover agents many of whom went missing After the war it was Atkins task to find what happened to them including agents she had trained It turned out that Buckmaster had refused to believe although shown evidence that their network had been compromised thus sending many agents to their arrests and deaths for over a year despite warnings from agents 18 During the war Buckmaster usually worked 16 to 18 hours per day and frequently more In the autumn of 1944 he was promoted to colonel and toured France giving lectures and delivering speeches in a mission based from the Hotel Cecil in Paris and known as JUDEX which simultaneously gave opportunity to clear up F Section s circuits and networks 19 His wartime service was recognized by an award of the OBE unusually in the Civil Division on 3 January 1945 Colonel Buckmaster was discreetly listed as a Civil Assistant at the War Office 20 and a Croix de Guerre from the French At the end of the war Allied commander General Dwight D Eisenhower said the section had helped shorten the war by six months It was the equivalent of 15 divisions he said 21 On 23 May 1947 the US Government awarded Buckmaster the Legion of Merit Officer which appeared in the London Gazette he was listed as a colonel with the Intelligence Corps 22 After World War II editAfter the war Buckmaster rejoined the Ford Motor Company serving in Dagenham as director of public affairs In 1946 and 1947 he wrote a series of eight articles on F Section for the now defunct Chambers Magazine entitled They Came By Parachute He wrote two memoirs Specially Employed 1952 and They Fought Alone 1958 He was interviewed for the 1969 documentary The Sorrow and the Pity 23 In the official history of SOE in France HMSO a part of the series of campaign histories commissioned by the British government author M R D Foot wrote of Buckmaster He was a colourful and in many ways a controversial figure he was not universally popular but no better head for the section was ever in sight 24 Buckmaster was an adviser on and appeared as himself in the film Odette about Odette Sansom then Odette Churchill later Hallowes Maurice Buckmaster Lane built on the former Joint Services School of Intelligence site in Ashford Kent is named after him Awards editMention in Despatches awarded on 20 December 1940 25 Medaille de la Resistance France 26 27 Legion d honneur France 28 29 Legion of Merit Officer U S awarded 23 May 1947 30 31 32 Order of the British Empire Civil Division Officer awarded 3 January 1945 33 Croix de Guerre 1939 1945 FranceReferences edit Simkin John August 2014 September 1997 Maurice Buckmaster Spartacus Educational Retrieved 3 November 2018 Kelly s Handbook to the Titled Landed and Official Classes 1921 p 288 England amp Wales Census 1911 Gerrards Cross Buckmaster family Spartacus International website accessed 28 August 2017 No 28587 The London Gazette 5 March 1912 p 1739 No 13714 The London Gazette 6 June 1921 p 978 Howarth 1980 p 135 No 34731 The London Gazette Supplement 10 November 1939 p 7628 No 34988 The London Gazette Supplement 8 November 1940 p 6484 Howarth 1980 p 136 137 Foot 1966 p 151 National Archives London File HS 9 232 8 Maurice Buckmaster No 35020 The London Gazette Supplement 20 December 1940 p 7192 Foot 1966 p 179 Marks Leo 1998 Between Silk and Cyanide London Harper Collins ISBN 0 00 255 944 7 pp 30 75 167 68 LaResistanceFrancaise Maurice Buckmaster Register of Marriages December Quarter 1941 Chelsea London A Life in Secrets Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE Sarah Helm Abacus 2006 pages 295 96 ISBN 0349119368 Foot 1966 pp 44 423 No 36869 The London Gazette Supplement 29 December 1944 p 121 Los Angeles Times Buckmaster Obituary 22 4 1992 No 37961 The London Gazette Supplement 20 May 1947 p 2287 The Sorrow and the Pity 1969 British Film Institute Archived from the original on 14 March 2016 Retrieved 3 November 2018 Foot 1966 p 179 No 35020 The London Gazette Supplement 20 December 1940 p 7192 LaResistanceFrancaise Maurice Buckmaster Seattle Times Obituary MJ Buckmaster LaResistanceFrancaise Maurice Buckmaster Seattle Times Obituary MJ Buckmaster No 37961 The London Gazette Supplement 20 May 1947 p 2287 Seattle Times Obituary MJ Buckmaster National Archives London Document WO 373 148 19 Legion of Honor US award No 36869 The London Gazette Supplement 29 December 1944 p 121 Bibliography editPatrick Howarth 1980 Undercover The men and women of the SOE Routledge ISBN 0710005733 Michael Richard Daniell Foot SOE in France An account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France 1940 1944 London Her Majesty s Stationery Office 1966 1968 Whitehall History Publishing in association with Frank Cass 2004 Official History of SOE in Europe Andre Gillois L Histoire secrete des Francais a Londres Le Cercle du nouveau Livre Librairie Jules Taillandier 1973 Verity Hugh 2013 We Landed by Moonlight Crecy Publishing ISBN 9780947554750 M R D Foot 2006 SOE in France Routledge ISBN 0415408008 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Maurice Buckmaster amp oldid 1180212451, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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