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Captain Harry Marcel Despaigne (aka. Major Richardson)  was a member of both the French Section and Force 136 of the Special Operations Executive and awarded the Légion d'honneur. Apart from his war service, Harry worked at the shipbrokers, CH Rugg.

Biography Harry was born in London on 3rd May 1917, with a French father and Belgium mother. Despaigne spent the majority of his youth in France. He grew to be a burly broad-shouldered man, over 6ft tall, with a toothbrush moustache. Those that knew him described him as an earnest man with a gentle voice and calm temperament.

At the age of 20, he relocated back to London and started working at CH Rugg, the shipbrokers located at St Mary Axe in the city.

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Harry died in London on 5th July 1992.

Wartime Activities

Early in 1941, he volunteered and was commissioned into the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. Later that year, he was entered into secret service Special Operations Executives. A proficient bilingual speaker with broad knowledge of France, he was one of the first agents to join French F Section run by Maurice Buckmaster.

During 1942-43, Despaigne (codename Ulysses) severed as a secret agent in the south of France arming, advising and organising guerrilla forces. Unable to continue with his radio liaison officer mission, he then made his way back to London though Gibraltar, finding his own way through the Pyrenees into Spain.

In September 1943, He then volunteered for a further secret mission, arriving back in southern France in a Westland Lysander aircraft. This time as a wireless operator to Pierre Sevenet, they worked together with the militant maquis (French rural guerrilla resistance fighters) named the Corps Franc de la Montagne Noire. A brigade of 600 armed men and women located in the Black Mountains. Despaigne handled all messaging related to arms being parachuted to them.

Despaigne was continuously on the run from the Germans. Although never catching him, the Gestapo put a price on his head for 15,000 francs. In July 1944, Despaigne took over when Sevenet was killed in action by aircraft when a German task force of 1,500 men, with armour and air support, attacked them. It was then Despaigne's responsibility to desperate the guerrillas into hiding. They remobilised themselves to inflict more damage to the enemy to correspond with the August D-Day for the allied arriving in Provence.

Recalled to England in September 1944, Despaigne then went to south-east Asia as part of Force 136. He severed in Burma, Laos and Thailand. In March 1946, he returned to London to build a peacetime career in the City.

Despaigne was a Knight of the Legion of Honour and a possessor of the Cross of War 39/45 with Palm.