SOE Deman, Erwin

[John Robertson]

• SURNAME

Deman​

• FORENAME

Erwin​

• UNIT

DF Section SOE​

• RANK

A/Captain​

• NUMBER

263885​

• AWARD

Military Cross​

• PLACE

France 1943-44​

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

parent unit General List​

born 30.4.1921 Vienna,Austria​

raised Vienna and Budapest​

22e Regiment de Marche de Voluntaires Etrangere (France) 1940​

POW - escaped​

French Foreign Legion (Algeria)​

DF Section SOE 1943-44​

VAR escape line between Brittany and Cornwall​

codename Paul​

Control Commission,Germany​

Secretary to the Arts Committee,1948 Olympic Games,London​

businessman,Belgian Congo 1948​

advertising agent,London ​

changed his first name to Peter 1960s​

married twice (4 sons)​

2nd wife Phillipa Bevan​

died 22.11.1998 Rose Green,Essex​

​

 

[Var Line]

I am immensely gratified to have found this website, and especially to find an honourable mention for my father. I have been able to secure de-classification of his SOE file at Kew, and it reveals a host of information which was quite new to me. Prominent among this was the tale of his enlistment in the Foreign Legion in 1941 and subsequent actions. From his MI5 interrogation record (he was arrested as an enemy alien when he arrived in UK) one learns that he was posted to 1st Btn, 1st Reg of the Legion in Sidi Bel Abbès. This unit was under Vichy control, and my father set up a clandestine network which locked up the regiment's officers at the time of the Torch landings, and he then led a desertion to the allied lines which grew to 3,000 men by the time he reached them. He was sent to the UK on the Empress of India, and promptly interned on arrival, and during his internment was recruited by SOE.

My thanks to John Robertson for a splendid website.