Sidney Jones

CdeG The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first aw ...

MBE (1902–1944) was a British Special Operations Executive agent during the Second World War.

Early life

Sidney Charles Jones was born in France on 25 November 1902, the son of Charles and Emily Louise Jones. Before the war he worked as

Elizabeth Arden Elizabeth Arden (born Florence Nightingale Graham; December 31, 1881 – October 18, 1966) was a Canadian-American businesswoman who founded what is now Elizabeth Arden, Inc., and built a cosmetics empire in the United States. By 1929, ...

’s representative in France.''SOE in France an account of the work of the British Special Operations Executive in France, 1940–1944'', MRD Foot, HMSO, London, 1966.

Wartime activities

He was nearly 40 when he arrived in the French Riviera by felucca in late September 1942 with the mission of establishing the INVENTOR network as a sabotage circuit in

Marseilles Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

. Before the German occupation of

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the Fascism, fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of ...

in November 1942 he had set up several sabotage teams which had burnt fifty goods wagons destined for Germany, and had damaged port installations. After five months in the field, Jones then returned to England. On the night of 14 May 1943 he was brought by Lysander piloted by

Hugh Verity Hugh Verity, (6 April 1918 – 14 November 2001) was a Royal Air Force fighter pilot and later a "special duties" squadron pilot working with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II. He landed many times at clandestine airfiel ...

, with

Marcel Clech Marcel Clech (1905 – 1944) was a French agent in the French section of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. He was sent to France on three missions and worked as a wireless operator in three different networks before h ...

as wireless operator, and

Vera Leigh Vera Leigh (17 March 1903 – 6 July 1944) was an agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive during World War II. Leigh was a member of the SOE's Donkeyman circuit and Inventor sub-circuit in occupied France unti ...

as courier, to re-form the INVENTOR network, working alongside

DONKEYMAN A steam donkey or donkey engine is a steam engine, steam-powered winch once widely used in logging, mining, Shipping industry, maritime, and other industrial applications. Steam powered donkeys were commonly found on large metal-hulled multi-m ...

, with Jones as liaison officer and arms instructor.Operation: INVENTOR; reception organized by Henri Déricourt ; field: FLU, near Tours ; doubled by Lysander ; pilots: squadron leader

and flying officer Rymills; people infiltrated : Sidney Jones, Marcel Clech,

Julienne Aisner Julienne Marie Louise Aisner (née Simart; 30 December 1899 – 15 February 1947), code named Clair, was an agent in France of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization during World War II. The purpose of ...

; people exfiltrated:

Francis Suttill Francis Alfred Suttill DSO (born, France, 17 March 1910 – executed, c. 23 March 1945), code name Prosper, was an agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in World War II. Suttill was the cre ...

France Antelme Major Joseph Antoine France Antelme OBE (12 March 1900 – 1944), no. 239255, was one of 14 Franco-Mauritians who served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a World War II British secret service that sent espionage agents, saboteurs and guer ...

(?), Mrs. Gouin (?). ugh Verity, p. 266./ref> The INVENTOR network was betrayed by double agent Roger Bardet, and on 30 October 1943 Leigh was arrested in Paris. On 19 November Clech was arrested in

Boulogne-Billancourt Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious commune in the Parisian area, located from its centre. It is a subprefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department an ...

after his transmissions was located by the German direction-finding service, and Jones was arrested the next day. Leigh was executed at

Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp Natzweiler-Struthof was a Nazi concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the villages of Natzweiler and Struthof in the Gau Baden-Alsace of Germany, on territory annexed from France on a basis in 1940. It operated from 21 ...

, Clech was executed at

Mauthausen concentration camp Mauthausen was a 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 Germany ...

on 24 March 1944. Jones was executed at Mauthausen on 16 September 1944, aged 42.

Recognition

Awards

* United Kingdom: MBE * France:

Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...

Monuments

* He is honoured at The Valençay SOE Memorial,

Indre Indre (; oc, Endre) is a landlocked department in central France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are known as the ''Indriens'' (masculine; ) and ''Indriennes'' (feminine; ). Indre is part of the current administ ...

, as one of the 104 agents of section F who lost their lives for France's liberation. * Brookwood Memorial, Surrey, Panel 4, Column 3.

Early life

Wartime activities

Recognition

Awards

Monuments

References

Further reading