Jacques Legrand (24 October 1906 – 30 June 1944) was a

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

leader and a

chemical engineer A chemical engineer is a professional equipped with the knowledge of chemistry and other basic sciences who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of Product (chemistry), products and deals with ...

at the Curie Institute in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Pre-war life

Legrand was born in

Douai Douai ( , , ; ; ; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord (French department), Nord département in northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe (rive ...

, France on 24 October 1906. He worked as a chemical engineer at the Curie Institute in

. Legrand was an avid amateur sailor in his spare time prior to the war.

World War II

Legrand joined the French Army in October 1939, following the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He served in an anti-aircraft battery during the

Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...

. Legrand was the co-founder of the

Réseau Gloria The réseau Gloria SMH (Gloria network) was a French Resistance network under the German occupation of France during World War II. The Gloria network was founded by Gabrielle Picabia, alias "Gloria", who was running it with Jacques Legrand (chemi ...

along with Gabrielle Picabia and served as the leader of the network. Réseau Gloria operated during the

German occupation of France during World War II The Military Administration in France (; ) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zone in areas of northern and western France. This so-called ' was established in June 19 ...

with the primary task of gathering naval and maritime intelligence. The network was in touch with the British

Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 (MI numbers, Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of Human i ...

and with the

Special Operations Executive Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local Resistance during World War II, resistance movements during World War II. ...

(SOE). Legrand's codename with SOE was "Jack Tar" and he was referred to as "SMH" and "Bernard" within his own network. He mostly recruited academics and college professors for intelligence gathering within his network. Legrand and Réseau Gloria provided information, photographs, and maps to American

Virginia Hall Virginia Hall Goillot DSC, Croix de Guerre, (April 6, 1906 – July 8, 1982), code named Marie and Diane, was an American who worked with the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the American Office of Stra ...

, among others. Among the members of Legrand's cell was

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

, who served mostly as a courier. The network was infiltrated by

Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' refe ...

and collaborator

Robert Alesch Robert Alesch (6 March 1906 – 25 January 1949) was a Catholic priest and collaborator with Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Biography Alesch was born 6 March 1906 in Aspelt, Luxembourg. He claimed that his father was a Lorraine French ...

in 1942.

Arrest and death

Acting on intelligence provided by Alesch, Legrand was arrested by the Germans on 13 August 1942, effectively ending the Réseau Gloria network. He was deported to the

Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp Mauthausen was a German Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 f ...

Mauthausen Mauthausen was a German Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with nearly 100 further subcamps located throughout Austria and southern ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

where he later died in 1944.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Legrand, Jacques French Resistance members Resistance members who died in Nazi concentration camps 20th-century French engineers French civilians killed in World War II 1906 births 1944 deaths People from Douai