Colonel Noel Andrew Cotton Croft, (30 November 1906 – 26 June 1998) was a member of the Special Operations Executive in World War II, with operations in Norway and Corsica, as well as

military attaché A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission, often an embassy. This type of attaché post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer, who retains a commission while serving with an embassy. Opport ...

to Sweden. He was also an Arctic explorer, holding the longest self-supporting dog-sledge journey in the

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for 60 years (across Greenland), and Commandant of the Cadet Corps of the

Metropolitan Police Service The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

Early life

Noel Andrew Croft was born on 30 November 1906,

St Andrews Day Saint Andrew's Day, also called the Feast of Saint Andrew or Andermas, is the feast day of Andrew the Apostle. It is celebrated on 30 November (according to Gregorian calendar) and on 13 December (according to Julian calendar). Saint Andrew is ...

, in

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...

in Hertfordshire where his father, Robert, was the local vicar. After two prep schools, he attended Lancing College, before becoming one of the founding pupils at

Stowe School , motto_translation = I stand firm and I stand first , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent school, day & boarding , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Headmaster ...

, and then going up to

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

in 1925.

Career as an explorer

Croft participated in several Arctic expeditions. In 1934, along with Lieutenant A.S.T. Godfrey Lieutenant Arthur Godfrey of the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

and Martin Lindsay, Croft participated in the 1934 British Trans-Greenland Expedition which mapped the Crown Prince Frederick Range as the expedition photographer and dog-handler. To do so, he learned to speak Danish and Greenlandic and learned to be an expert dog-driver. He served as the second-in-command of the Oxford University Arctic Expedition, 1935–36, under A. R. Glen, a glaciologist. The expedition, under the auspices of the Oxford University Exploration Club, was a fourteen-month-long scientific survey of

North-East Land The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...

. He was a recipient of the Polar Medal in 1942 and of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

's Back Award in 1947.

War service and army career

During World War II Croft served with the British Army in Finland, Norway, and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

before returning to active service with

No. 14 (Arctic) Commando No. 14 (Arctic) Commando sometimes also called the Special Commando Boating Group, was a 60-man Commando unit of the British Army during the Second World War. The commando was formed in 1942 for service in the Arctic and was disbanded in 1943. B ...

. He served with a Special Forces unit behind enemy lines in Tunisia, and was then given an independent command in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to operate small motor boats out of Calvi in Northern Corsica. Covert missions were carried out to the Italian and French coasts, where secret agents and equipment were landed and picked up. In 1944, he was parachuted into Southern France to organise the French Resistance there. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) on 15 March 1945. Following the end of the war he was granted a regular commission on 21 May 1949, backdated to his original commissioning.

Later life

On 24 July 1952, he married Rosalind Madden, the widow of an Irish Guards officer. He stepped down with his leader,

Eric Shipton Eric Earle Shipton, CBE (1 August 1907 – 28 March 1977), was an English Himalayan mountaineer. Early years Shipton was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1907 where his father, a tea planter, died before he was three years old. When he was eigh ...

, from the 1953 Everest Expedition which summitted the mountain that year. In the 1950s he was appointed as the commandant of the Army Apprentice School, Harrogate. In 1960, Croft became the first Commandant of the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

's Hendon Police Cadet College, and was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the

1970 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1970 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced in supplements to the ''Lon ...

for his successful development of the Corps of Cadets. In 1968, he served as a member of the organising committee for an Arctic exploration expedition led by Wally Herbert. A member of the expedition, Allan Gill, suffered a serious lower back injury requiring his evacuation.'' The Times'', by a Staff Reporter, 26 September 1968, pg. 1

Publications

* ''Polar Exploration: Epics of the Twentieth Century'' * ''A Talent for Adventure''. The Self-Publishing Association, 1991

References

External links

*The Andrew Croft Memorial Fund (http://www.acmf.org.uk/) {{DEFAULTSORT:Croft, Andrew 1906 births 1998 deaths Military personnel from Hertfordshire British Army Commandos officers British military attachés British Army personnel of World War II Essex Regiment officers Officers of the Order of the British Empire Companions of the Distinguished Service Order British Special Operations Executive personnel English explorers British polar explorers People educated at Lancing College People educated at Stowe School Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Recipients of the Polar Medal People from Stevenage