Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1939-1942 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent
1 file
Scope and content
Memoir of Brig Derrick Baynham, 1939-1942, including descriptions of assisting in the evacuation of Dunkirk, 1940; work in the Local Defence Volunteers, 1941; Special Operations Executive (SOE) training, including resisting interrogation and handling explosives; preparation for mission to support agents in occupied France and identify targets for sabotage; account of the mission including encounter with Milice (Vichy police), liasion with sympathetic French locals in Limoges, recovery of radio transmission equipment from the Milice, establishment of permanent base station in Perigueux and return to England, 1942. Also accounts of the attempted rescue of the surviving crew member of a crashed British bomber off the coast of Anglesey, 1941, for which Baynham was awarded the George Medal, and account of his capture by German troops and subsequent escape, Germany, April 1945.
System of arrangement
One file.
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
Born 1924; educated St George's College, Weybridge; took part in the Dunkirk evacuations, 1940; joined SOE, 1942; in ranks till 1943; 2nd Lieutenant, 1943; commissioned into Royal Signals, 1945; Lieutenant, 1946; ADC to the Viceroy of India and the Governor of Burma; Captain, 1951; Major, 1958; operations officer to the Director of Operations in Cyprus, 1958-1960; Joint Services Staff College, Latimer, 1963; Lieutenant Colonel, 1966; commanded Signal Wing, School of Infantry, Hythe, 1966; Colonel, 1970; Brigadier, 1973; commander, 11 Signal Group (V), Liverpool, 1974; Chief Signal Officer, UK Land Forces, Wilton; retired 1979; died 2006.
Repository
Custodial history
Presented to the Centre by the family, Apr 2008.
Conditions governing access
Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied from open material for research purposes only.
Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, via the Archives.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Finding aids
This collection level description.
Existence and location of originals
Please note: We require 7 days notice to retrieve this collection as part, or all of it, is held off-campus. Read more ›
Related materials
Alternative identifier(s)
Place access points
People and Organisations
- SOE (Subject)
- Special Operations Executive x Special Operations Executive (Subject)
Genre access points
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.
Script(s)
Archivist's note
Compiled by Katharine Higgon and Kate O'Brien.