Frank Thompson (SOE officer)
| Frank Thompson | |
|---|---|
Major William Frank Thompson of SOE
|
|
| Birth name | William Frank Thompson |
| Born |
17 August 1920 Darjeeling, British India |
| Died | 10 June 1944 (aged 23) Litakovo, Kingdom of Bulgaria |
| Buried | Sofia War Cemetery |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Service/branch | British Army |
| Years of service | 1939–1944 |
| Rank | Major |
| Unit | Special Operations Executive |
| Battles/wars | Second World War |
| Relations | E. P. Thompson (brother) |
Major William Frank Thompson (17 August 1920 – 10 June 1944) was a British officer who acted as a liaison between the British Army and the Bulgarian communist and antifascist partisans during the Second World War.
Thompson was born in Darjeeling, Bengal Presidency, British India to a British missionary family. He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford. His younger brother, E. P. Thompson, was the English historian, socialist and peace campaigner.
In 1939, while studying at the University of Oxford, he became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain under the influence of his close friend Iris Murdoch. Despite his affiliation, he did not support the party's policy of neutrality dictated by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and joined the British Army with service number 124039 as a volunteer training with the No. 122 Officer Cadet Training Regiment before being commissioned Second Lieutenant into the Royal Artillery on 2 March 1940. He served in England, North Africa, Syria, Iraq, Sicily, Serbia and Bulgaria. He was part of the Special Operations Executive.
On 25 January 1944, along with three other commandos, Major Thompson was sent on a parachute landing mission to establish a link between the British staff and the Bulgarian partisans led by Slavcho Transki; he landed near Dobro Pole, Macedonia. The commandos carried a radio to keep in contact with the staff in Cairo, Egypt and Bari, Italy, but it broke down. On 23 May, Thompson took part in the clash at the village of Batuliya between the Bulgarian Gendarmerie and the Second Sofia Brigade of National Liberation of the partisans. He was wounded by the gendarmerie forces, captured and executed by firing squad in the nearby village of Litakovo.
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