Jack Agazarian
Jack Charles Stanmore Agazarian (27 August 1915 – 29 March 1945), code name Marcel, was an agent for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in France during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with French Resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.
Jack Agazarian | |
|---|---|
| Born | 27 August 1915 London |
| Died | 29 March 1945 (aged 29) Flossenbürg concentration camp |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom, France |
| Service/ | RAFVR, Special Operations Executive, French Resistance |
| Years of service | 1942-1945 |
| Rank | Honorary Flight Lieutenant, Field agent and guerrilla commander |
| Unit | F Section, SOE |
| Commands held | Prosper |
| Relations | Francine Agazarian |
Agazarian was captured by the Germans on 30 July 1943 when he sought to confirm the status of a resistance cell that the Nazis had compromised. He was later executed.
Early life
Agazarian was born in London, to an Armenian father, Berdge Rupen Agazarian, and French mother, Jacqueline Marie-Louise Le Chevalier Agazarian, the second of six children. He was educated in both France and England at Dulwich College. After completing his education he worked with his father in the family business.
After joining the Royal Air Force in 1940 soon after the outbreak of World War II, he was recruited as a wireless operator by the SOE. His younger brother, Noel Agazarian, also joined the Royal Air Force, but as a Spitfire pilot; he went on to be a flying ace in the Battle of Britain before being killed in action on 16 May 1941.
Agazarian received an honorary commission as a pilot officer in the RAFVR on 10 September 1942.[1]
Special Operations Executive
M. R. D. Foot, official historian of SOE
In December 1942 Agazarian arrived in Paris to join the newly formed Prosper network of the SOE and was joined later by his wife Francine. He occasionally worked for Henri Dericourt, a former French Air Force pilot whose job was to find landing grounds and arrange receptions for SOE agents arriving by air. At this time he began to question Dericourt's loyalty and reported to London his own and other agents' suspicions.
Agazarian was promoted to honorary flying officer on 12 January 1943.[3]
Agazarian became known to the Gestapo, and on several occasions he narrowly escaped arrest.
SOE Circuit leader Francis Suttill considered Agazarian's continued presence to be a security risk. On 16 June 1943 Agazarian was returned to England where he reiterated his concerns about Dericourt's loyalty to Nicholas Bodington and Maurice Buckmaster, who were nevertheless unconvinced. However, when agent Noor Inyat Khan lost contact with the Prosper group, headquarters became increasingly concerned. Leo Marks, the SOE's head of codes and ciphers, became convinced that Gilbert Norman, the group's wireless operator, was transmitting under German control.
Agazarian joined Bodington (who was still sceptical) in a mission to France to determine the status of the Prosper network, departing 22 July 1943. Bodington, working through headquarters, arranged a meeting with Gilbert Norman at a pre-arranged address in the rue de Rome near Gare St-Lazare, but it was Agazarian, not Bodington who went to the meeting.
The concerns about the Prosper network proved well-founded. German forces had indeed compromised the network, and Agazarian was taken prisoner at the meeting. Three members of the network, courier Andrée Borrel, leader Francis Suttill and wireless operator Gilbert Norman, had been in custody since 23 June, and Norman's transmissions had indeed been made by the Germans. Henri Dericourt's role in the loss of the Prosper network remains unclear; after the war he was tried as a double agent, but acquitted for lack of evidence. Some authors have alleged he was a triple agent working for Secret Intelligence Service and the SOE agents had been sacrificed to distract German attentions from landings in Sicily and Normandy.
The arrest of Agazarian, who knew a great deal about the Prosper network, was a massive coup for the Germans. He endured torture for six months at Fresnes prison and was then moved to Flossenbürg concentration camp. After being kept there in solitary confinement, Agazarian was executed on 29 March 1945.[4]
Jack Agazarian is honored on the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey, England,[5] on the SOE memorial at Flossenbürg,[6] and also on the Roll of Honor on the Valençay SOE Memorial in Valençay, in the Indre département of France.[7] He received a posthumous mention in dispatches on 13 June 1946,[8] and was also awarded the Légion d'honneur and Croix de guerre by France.[9][10]
References
- "No. 35750". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 October 1942. p. 4546.
- Foot, M.R.D. (1966), SOE in France, London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, pp. 323-324
- "No. 35911". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 February 1943. p. 887.
- Lewis, Greg (6 August 2016). "Unknown WW2 secret agent buried in Cardiff cemetery". BBC. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
- "Casualty Details: Agazarian, Jack Charles Stanmore". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
- de Vries, Fedor. "S.O.E. Memorial". Trace of War. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
- Larroque, Herve (14 June 1998). "The Section F Monument: Roll of Honour". SOE action in France. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
- "No. 37598". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 June 1946. p. 2817.
- Houterman, Hans; Koppes, Jeroen. "Royal Air Force (Volunteer Reserve) Officers 1939–1945 ("A")". WWII Unit Histories & Officers. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
- Grehan, John; Mace, Martin (19 December 2012). Unearthing Churchill's Secret Army: The Official List of SOE Casualties and Their Stories. Pen and Sword Books. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-78337-664-3.