Forest Frederick Edward Yeo-Thomas
| Tommy Yeo-Thomas | |
|---|---|
Photograph of Yeo-Thomas taken eight hours before he parachuted into occupied France in September 1943
|
|
| Birth name | Forest Frederick Edward Yeo-Thomas |
| Nickname(s) | Tommy |
| Born |
17 June 1902 London, England |
| Died | 26 February 1964 (aged 61) Paris, France |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Service/branch |
 Royal Air Force
|
| Rank | Wing Commander |
| Service number | 39215 |
| Unit | Special Operations Executive |
| Battles/wars |
Polish-Soviet War Second World War |
| Awards |
George Cross Military Cross & Bar Legion of Honour (France) Croix de guerre (France) Cross of Merit (Poland) |
Wing Commander Forest Frederick Edward "Tommy" Yeo-Thomas GC, MC & Bar (17 June 1902 – 26 February 1964) was a British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent in the Second World War. Codenamed "SEAHORSE" and "SHELLEY" in the SOE, Yeo-Thomas was known by the Gestapo as "The White Rabbit". His particular sphere of operations was Occupied and Vichy France.
Forest Frederick Edward Yeo-Thomas was born in London to John Yeo Thomas, a coal merchant, and Daisy Ethel Thomas (born Burrows). Early in his life, his family moved to Dieppe, France. He spoke both English and French fluently. He saw action in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1920, fighting alongside the Poles. He was captured by the Soviet Russian forces, and avoided execution by escaping, in the process strangling a Soviet guard.
Between the wars, Yeo-Thomas worked for Molyneux, a successful fashion-house in Paris. After the fall of France and the chaotic evacuation at Dunkirk in 1940, he escaped back to England, where he initially worked as an interpreter for de Gaulle's Free French forces. He was quickly prised away from de Gaulle by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), a newly formed intelligence and subversion organization. He had enlisted in the RAF but was soon made an officer.
At first Yeo-Thomas worked in an administrative capacity, but SOE soon used him as a liaison officer with the Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action (BCRA), the Free French intelligence agency. He was parachuted into occupied France for the first time on 25 February 1943. Both within France and back in England, Yeo-Thomas forged links with Major Pierre Brossolette and Andre Dewavrin (who went under the codename "Colonel Passy"), and between them they created a strategy for obstructing the German occupation of France. During his missions in France, he dined with prolific and infamous Nazis, such as Klaus Barbie who was known as the 'Butcher of Lyon', to gather vital information, before returning to France on 17 September 1943. He was appalled by the lack of logistical and material support which the French resistance movements such as the maquis were receiving, to the extent that he begged five minutes with Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister. Churchill, reluctant at first, but fascinated by what Yeo-Thomas told him, agreed to help him obtain resources for the resistance.
...
Wikipedia