Francis Suttill
Encyclopedia
Major Francis Alfred Suttill DSO
(17 March 1910 – 23 March 1945) was a British
special agent who worked for the Special Operations Executive
(SOE) inside France
. He organized and coordinated the Physician network, better known by his own code name Prosper. He was captured and killed by the Nazis
.
near Lille
, France
, to an English father, William Francis Suttill, and a French mother, Blanche Marie-Louise Degrave. His father managed a textile manufacturing plant in Lille. Suttill studied at Stonyhurst College
, Lancashire
, England
. For the school year 1927/8, he attended the College de Marcq in Mons-en-Barœul, gaining his Baccalaureat. He then read law at the University of Lille
and was accepted as an external student at University College London. In 1931, he moved to London
to continue his studies and eventually became a barrister
at Lincoln's Inn
. He married in 1935 and had 2 sons.
of the British Army
. He was later recruited by the SOE, and after being trained during the summer of 1942, Suttill was chosen to create a new resistance network in northern France, based in Paris
, with the operational name Physician. His code name was Prosper and his assumed identity was François Desprées.
On 24 September 1942, his courier Andrée Borrel
, aka Denise, was parachuted in France to prepare for his arrival. He himself parachuted into France on 1 October 1942 near La Ferte-sous-Jouarre. (1) (see also note in Discussion section). Suttill and Borrel, posing as brother and sister, traveled around a large part of northern France to start building their network, known in France as Physician-Prosper. They were joined by wireless operators Gilbert Norman
(Archambaud) in November, and Jack Agazarian
(Marcel) in December.
During the first half of 1943, the Prosper network grew considerably, covering a large part of northern France, and involving an increasing number of locally recruited agents. There were parachute reception teams in the Ardennes in Belgium, near Falaise in Normandy, three around Le Mans and two around Troyes soon to be taken over by the Tinker circuit. Also both the Privet circuit around Nantes and the Musician circuit around Saint Quentin were originally part of the Physician circuit. There were two main clusters; one in the Vernon/Beauvais/Meru triangle to the northwest of Paris and the other between Tours, Orleans and Vierzon, an area known as the Sologne between the Loire and Cher rivers. (1)
68 operations were flown to these groups but the location of 35 of those in June 1943 are not known as the relevant files have been lost. (1)
Although SOE’s policy was that circuits should remain separate from each other, circumstances dictated that almost all of the other circuits sent to northern France in the first half of 1943 had to rely on the Prosper organisation for radio communication with London.
On 15 May 1943, Suttill returned to London for reasons which remain obscure. He was parachuted back in France over Romorantin
on 21 May 1943, with another SOE agent, France Antelme
.
Culioli was taken to Paris on the evening of 23 June and shortly after midnight, a German officer pretending to be one of the recently parachuted agents came to the apartment where Norman was staying and he and Borrel were arrested. The apartment was full of false papers and new ID cards were needed because the specification had just been changed; Suttill would in any case have needed a new one as he had changed his address on 19 June. The Germans sent a team to Suttill’s new address and he was arrested around the middle of the morning of 24 June when he returned there. (1)
Hundreds of local agents were arrested over the next 3 months, of whom 80 died or were killed, mostly in Concentration Camps. (1)
Suttill was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp
near Berlin
where he was held in solitary confinement in the prison block until he was killed in March 1945. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order
posthumously.
Francis Suttill is honoured on the CWGC Memorial at Groesbeek in the Netherlands and also on the Roll of Honour on the Valençay SOE Memorial
in Valençay
, in the Indre
département of France.
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
(17 March 1910 – 23 March 1945) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
special agent who worked for the Special Operations Executive
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
(SOE) inside France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He organized and coordinated the Physician network, better known by his own code name Prosper. He was captured and killed by the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
.
Early years
Suttill was born in Mons-en-BarœulMons-en-Barœul
Mons-en-Barœul is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It is a suburb of the city of Lille, and is adjacent to it on the northeast. The name Mons-en-Barœul means mount in the Barœul, the city is actually built on a slight hill; the Barœul was a former territory . Before the sixteenth...
near Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, to an English father, William Francis Suttill, and a French mother, Blanche Marie-Louise Degrave. His father managed a textile manufacturing plant in Lille. Suttill studied at Stonyhurst College
Stonyhurst College
Stonyhurst College is a Roman Catholic independent school, adhering to the Jesuit tradition. It is located on the Stonyhurst Estate near the village of Hurst Green in the Ribble Valley area of Lancashire, England, and occupies a Grade I listed building...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. For the school year 1927/8, he attended the College de Marcq in Mons-en-Barœul, gaining his Baccalaureat. He then read law at the University of Lille
Université Lille Nord de France
The University of Lille -Nord de France , located in Lille, France, is a center for higher education, academic research and doctoral studies located over multiple campuses in the Academie de Lille....
and was accepted as an external student at University College London. In 1931, he moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to continue his studies and eventually became a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
at Lincoln's Inn
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...
. He married in 1935 and had 2 sons.
Wartime activities
In May 1940 he was commissioned into the East Surrey RegimentEast Surrey Regiment
The East Surrey Regiment was a regiment in the British Army formed in 1881 from the amalgamation of the 31st Regiment of Foot and the 70th Regiment of Foot...
of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
. He was later recruited by the SOE, and after being trained during the summer of 1942, Suttill was chosen to create a new resistance network in northern France, based in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, with the operational name Physician. His code name was Prosper and his assumed identity was François Desprées.
On 24 September 1942, his courier Andrée Borrel
Andrée Borrel
Andrée Raymonde Borrel was a French heroine of World War II.-Early life:Andrée Borrel was born into a working-class family in Louveciennes, Yvelines in the suburbs of Paris, growing up an active girl who liked hiking and most other outdoor activities...
, aka Denise, was parachuted in France to prepare for his arrival. He himself parachuted into France on 1 October 1942 near La Ferte-sous-Jouarre. (1) (see also note in Discussion section). Suttill and Borrel, posing as brother and sister, traveled around a large part of northern France to start building their network, known in France as Physician-Prosper. They were joined by wireless operators Gilbert Norman
Gilbert Norman
Gilbert Maurice Norman was born 1914 in Saint-Cloud,Hauts-de-Seine to an English father and a French mother and was educated in France and England....
(Archambaud) in November, and Jack Agazarian
Jack Agazarian
Jack Charles Stanmore Agazarian was a British espionage agent who worked for the Special Operations Executive inside France...
(Marcel) in December.
During the first half of 1943, the Prosper network grew considerably, covering a large part of northern France, and involving an increasing number of locally recruited agents. There were parachute reception teams in the Ardennes in Belgium, near Falaise in Normandy, three around Le Mans and two around Troyes soon to be taken over by the Tinker circuit. Also both the Privet circuit around Nantes and the Musician circuit around Saint Quentin were originally part of the Physician circuit. There were two main clusters; one in the Vernon/Beauvais/Meru triangle to the northwest of Paris and the other between Tours, Orleans and Vierzon, an area known as the Sologne between the Loire and Cher rivers. (1)
68 operations were flown to these groups but the location of 35 of those in June 1943 are not known as the relevant files have been lost. (1)
Although SOE’s policy was that circuits should remain separate from each other, circumstances dictated that almost all of the other circuits sent to northern France in the first half of 1943 had to rely on the Prosper organisation for radio communication with London.
On 15 May 1943, Suttill returned to London for reasons which remain obscure. He was parachuted back in France over Romorantin
Romorantin
Romorantin is a traditional French variety of white wine grape, that is a sibling of Chardonnay. Once quite widely grown in the Loire, it has now only seen in the Cour-Cheverny AOC. It produces intense, minerally wines somewhat reminiscent of Chablis....
on 21 May 1943, with another SOE agent, France Antelme
France Antelme
Major Joseph Antoine France Antelme OBE was one of 14 Franco-Mauritians who served in the Special Operations Executive , a World War II British secret service that sent spies, saboteurs and guerrilla fighters into enemy-occupied territory.After spying in Vichy-held Madagascar ahead of the allied...
.
The arrests
The sequence of events leading to the arrest of Suttill started on the night of 10/11 June 1943 when some parachuted containers exploded during an operation in the Sologne that alerted the Germans. The local leader, Culioli, asked Suttill to suspend further parachute operations but he refused. Five days later, two SOE agents were dropped to one of Culioli’s receptions. On the morning of 21 June, Culioli set off with the two agents to catch a train to Paris unaware that the Germans had set up extensive roadblocks during the night. They were caught and the Germans found packages of letters and instructions and radio crystals in the car, two of which were clearly labelled “For Archambaud”. This led the Germans to Archambaud, for as Culioli admitted after the war, he had the address of Archambaud in his briefcase when he was caught. (1)Culioli was taken to Paris on the evening of 23 June and shortly after midnight, a German officer pretending to be one of the recently parachuted agents came to the apartment where Norman was staying and he and Borrel were arrested. The apartment was full of false papers and new ID cards were needed because the specification had just been changed; Suttill would in any case have needed a new one as he had changed his address on 19 June. The Germans sent a team to Suttill’s new address and he was arrested around the middle of the morning of 24 June when he returned there. (1)
Hundreds of local agents were arrested over the next 3 months, of whom 80 died or were killed, mostly in Concentration Camps. (1)
Suttill was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
near Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
where he was held in solitary confinement in the prison block until he was killed in March 1945. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
posthumously.
Francis Suttill is honoured on the CWGC Memorial at Groesbeek in the Netherlands and also on the Roll of Honour on the Valençay SOE Memorial
Valençay SOE Memorial
The Valençay SOE Memorial is a monument to the members of the Special Operations Executive F Section who lost their lives for the liberation of France. The memorial was unveiled in the town of Valençay in the Indre département of France on May 6, 1991, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the...
in Valençay
Valençay
Valençay is a commune in the Indre department in central France.-Geography:Valençay is situated in the Loire Valley on a hillside overlooking the River Nahon.-History:...
, in the Indre
Indre
Indre is a department in the center of France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are called Indriens.-History:Indre is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
département of France.
Further reading
- Henri Noguères - Histoire de la Résistance en France de 1940 à 1945, Robert Laffont, 1976.
- Hugh VerityHugh VerityHugh Beresford Verity was a Royal Air Force officer of the Second World War.At the start of the war he joined a reconnaissance squadron, and in 1941 he joined the RAF's arm of the Special Operations Executive. In 1942, he took command of a section of Lysanders as No. 161 Squadron RAF...
- We Landed by Moonlight, (revised edition). Manchester: Crecy Publishing, 2000. - Anthony Cave Brown - Bodyguard of Lies: The Extraordinary True Story Behind D-Day , 1975.
- M. R. D. Foot - S.O.E. in France, Frank Cass Publishers, 2004 (first published London, HMSO 1966). Official history.
- Stella King - Jacqueline, Arms and Armour, 1989.
- Sarah Helm - A Life in Secrets: The Story of Vera Atkins and S.O.E's Lost Agents, Little, Brown, 2005.
- Marcel Ruby - La guerre secrete : les reseaux buckmaster, France Empire, 1991.
- Paul Guillaume - La Sologne au temps de l'heroisme et de la trahaison,, Imprimerie Nouvelle, Orleans, 1950.