Sidney Charles Jones

Sidney Jones CdeG 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’s representative in France.[1]

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.[2] Before the German occupation of Vichy France 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.[1]

On the night of 14 May 1943 he was brought by Lysander piloted by Hugh Verity, with Marcel Clech as wireless operator, and Vera Leigh as courier, to re-form the INVENTOR network, working alongside DONKEYMAN, with Jones as liaison officer and arms instructor.[1][3]

The INVENTOR network was betrayed by double agent Roger Bardet,[1] and on 30 October 1943 Leigh was arrested in Paris. On 19 November Clech was arrested in Boulogne-Billancourt after his transmissions was located by the German direction-finding service, and Jones was arrested the next day.[1] Leigh was executed at Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp, Clech was executed at Mauthausen concentration camp on 24 March 1944. Jones was executed at Mauthausen on 16 September 1944, aged 42.[1]

Recognition

Awards

Monuments

References
  1. SOE in France an account of the work of the British Special Operations Executive in France, 1940–1944, MRD Foot, HMSO, London, 1966.
  2. National Archives : 9/809/5 - Sidney Charles JONES
  3. Operation: INVENTOR; reception organized by Henri Déricourt ; field: FLU, near Tours ; doubled by Lysander ; pilots: squadron leader Hugh Verity and flying officer Rymills; people infiltrated : Sidney Jones, Marcel Clech, Vera Leigh, Julienne Aisner ; people exfiltrated: Francis Suttill, France Antelme (?), Mrs. Gouin (?). [Hugh Verity, p. 266.]

Further reading
  • MRD Foot, SOE in France an account of the work of the British Special Operations Executive in France, 1940–1944, HMSO, London, 1966.
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