Forgotten spy and escape artist extraordinaire comes in from the cold.
Heritage plaque for Edward Yeo-Thomas – secret agent in second world war who escaped Nazi captors in occupied France.
His exploits as a secret agent put fictional heroes to shame. His bravery and sheer physical resilience were remarkable.
He escaped from a Russian prison by strangling a guard, and was captured behind enemy lines during the second world war and repeatedly tortured by the Gestapo. He escaped again. Even when compared with other, more celebrated, members of the Special Operations Executive, who showed extraordinary courage, he stood out.
Now little known, Forest Frederic Edward Yeo-Thomas – the White Rabbit, Seahorse and Shelley were among his codenames – today became the first secret agent to be commemorated by an English Heritage blue plaque. It was unveiled by his niece, Carol Green, at Queen Court, Guilford Street, Bloomsbury, London, where he lived with his wife Barbara. Present at the ceremony were Mark Seaman, historian and writer of Yeo-Thomas's biography, The Bravest of the Brave, and Squadron Leader Lee Roberts on behalf of the RAF.
Lying about his age, 16-year-old Yeo-Thomas joined the US army in the first world war, then served with the Polish army in their struggle against the Soviet Union. Captured in 1920 and facing the prospect of execution, he strangled his prison guard and escaped to France.
He joined the RAF at the outbreak of the second world war but was turned down for an active role as being too old. French-speaking Yeo-Thomas then joined the SOE and was dropped into occupied France to contact resistance groups and report back to London, where he persuaded Churchill that they were playing a valuable role and needed British support. While in France he managed to avoid Klaus Barbie, who was travelling on the same train, and evade capture by hiding in a hearse.
But in 1944, during his third mission in France, his luck ran out – he had narrowly escaped arrest on six separate occasions – and he was betrayed. He was arrested at Passy metro station in Paris. At the Gestapo's Paris headquarters in Avenue Foch, Yeo-Thomas was repeatedly submerged in ice-cold water with his legs and arms chained. Electric shocks were applied to his genitals. He lost consciousness and was woken forcefully. Despite four days of continuous interrogation, he never disclosed information about the resistance or his underground work, insisting he was just an RAF pilot who had been shot down.
Over the next four months, in between frequent but hopeless attempts at escape, he was sent to a number of jails, then deported to Buchenwald concentration camp. After a group of his fellow prisoners were executed by hanging he seized an opportunity to swap his identity with a dead French prisoner – making sure other prisoners could, too.
He was transferred to another camp and after yet another attempt to escape was picked up by a German patrol, who took him for a French prisoner, and he was taken to a camp near Marienburg.
On April 1945 the camp's prisoners were evacuated towards Czechoslovakia by train. During a stop to bury dead prisoners, Yeo-Thomas and a small group took their chance to escape into the woods. Ten were killed by gunfire from the guards. He became separated from his companions and spent three days without food.escaped. A week later he was recaptured when only 800 yards from the American lines. After a few days, he led a party of 10 French prisoners of war through German patrols to the American lines.
In recognition of his exceptional courage, Yeo-Thomas was awarded the George Cross, the Military Cross and bar, the Croix de Guerre and the Polish Cross of Merit. He was made a commander of the Légion d'honneur in 1963, a year before he died, aged 62.