Yeo thomas biography of william

• Bond author Ian Fleming briefed intelligence colleagues on the exploits of Wing Commander Forest 'Tommy' Yeo-Thomas
• Yeo-Thomas was parachuted into occupied France three times, was tortured by the Gestapo and escaped from a concentration camp
• Like 007, he surrounded himself with women and always carried a weapon

By ROB PREECE

Published: | Updated:

His identity has remained a secret for decades, as one would expect of an international man of mystery.

But after years of speculation, the debate over who it was that Ian Fleming based his character James Bond upon may finally have been resolved.

One of Britain's greatest spies of the Second World War, Wing Commander Forest 'Tommy' Yeo-Thomas, has been identified as the inspiration behind 007.

A new biography of Yeo-Thomas claims that, like Bond, he surrounded himself with women and ruthlessly saw off his enemies.

And it suggests that many of his real-life adventures are recreated in Fleming's novels.

Yeo-Thomas, who was known by the code name White Rabbit, was parachuted into occupied France three times before being captured and tortured by the Gestapo.

He was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp but managed to escape and reach the Allied lines.

Historian Sophie Jackson discovered Yeo-Thomas's link to Bond in recently declassified documents at the National Archives, in West London.

The dossier includes a memo from May 1945 in which Fleming, who also worked in intelligence during the war, informs colleagues of Yeo-Thomas's escape from the Gestapo.

Yeo-Thomas and Fleming worked in different units and this is the first time a connection has been established between the two men.

Miss Jackson, a former editor of History magazine, exp

YEO, JAMES, shipbuilder and owner, merchant, landowner, and farmer; b. 1789 (baptized 13 Feb. 1790) at Kilkhampton, Cornwall, England, eldest son of James Yeo and Ann Orsborn; m. first in 1812 Mary Francis, by whom he had three children, and secondly in 1819, Damaris Sargent of Kilkhampton, by whom he had five daughters and two sons; d. 25 Aug. 1868 at Port Hill, P.E.I.

James Yeo, the son of a shoemaker, was a labourer until 1814 or 1815 when he set up as a carter between Kilkhampton and Bideford, Devon. After his first wife’s death in 1818 this business failed, partly as a result of Yeo’s drunkenness. In May 1819 he married again and the couple probably immigrated the same year to Port Hill, Prince County, Prince Edward Island. There Yeo worked as superintendent of the lumbering gangs and helped with the management of the stores in the lumbering, shipbuilding, and mercantile business established by Thomas Burnard in 1818 and at that time managed by Thomas Burnard Chanter*. In 1826, after Burnard’s death, Chanter disposed of the business at Port Hill to William Ellis*, a master shipbuilder who had also emigrated from the Bideford district. The business had a large number of outstanding accounts, many of which Yeo collected in the name of the Burnard family, with whom he was known to be associated; he then retained the proceeds, though they were in fact the legal property of Ellis. In this way Yeo acquired capital to set up on a small scale as a lumber dealer, storekeeper, and owner and master of the 35-foot merchant schooner Mary Ann, which he sailed from 1829 to 1832.

Possessed of enormous physical and mental energy and business acumen, Yeo greatly prospered. By the mid 1830s he already exercised considerable influence in Prince County, having bought the original business at Port Hill from Ellis in circumstances which generated legends of an Esau-like misappropriation of Ellis’ inheritance persisting on the Is

Forest Frederick Edward Yeo-Thomas was born on 17 June 1901 at 45 Balcombe Street, Marylebone, London. His Father was John Yeo-Thomas (a coal merchant) and his Mother was Daisy Ethel Thomas (formerly Burrows).

Wing Commander Yeo-Thomas, who spoke perfect French, parachuted into France on 23 February 1943 on his first mission which he completed successfully. He brought back with him to the UK a US Army Air Corps Officer whom he had rescued after being shot down, and, speaking no French, was in danger of capture. He also completed a second mission successfully, the information he returned helping to rectify a previously unsuccessful mission.

In February 1944 he was again parachuted into France. While walking down some steps in an attempt to meet a contact at Passy Metro Station, he was arrested by the Gestapo and was taken to their Headquarters in the Avenue Foch in Paris.

He underwent four days’ continuous interrogation, interspersed with beatings and torture, including immersions, head downwards, in ice-cold water, with his legs and arms chained. He was offered his freedom in return for information concerning the head of a Resistance Section, but he remained silent. Owing to his wrist being cut by chains, he contracted blood poisoning and nearly lost his left arm, but in spite of this, he made two daring unsuccessful attempts to escape.

On 17 July 1944 he was sent to Compiegne Prison and then, with 36 other prisoners to Buchenwald Concentration Camp.

Wing Commander Yeo-Thomas had already started to organise resistance within the camp and remained undaunted by the imminent threat of execution. He accepted the opportunity to change his identity with that of a dead French prisoner, on condition that other officers would also be able to do so, and in this way he was instrumental in saving the lives of Hessel and Peuleve.

Later Yeo-Thomas was transferred to a work Kommando for Jews, tried to escape but was re-captured and, claiming French nationality, was

By NIALL FIRTH FOR MAILONLINE
Updated:

His action-packed life was the stuff of boyhood fantasy.

As the famous spy codenamed 'The White Rabbit',  Forest Frederic Edward Yeo-Thomas spent the Second World War behind enemy lines and was captured and tortured by the Nazis.

And in the First World War the RAF fighter command officer was captured by the Russians and only managed to escape by strangling his guard.

Today, more than 60 years after he received the George Cross, Yeo-Thomas's life was celebrated with a blue plaque outside his home.

On a secret mission in France during the Second World War he evaded capture by the Nazis by hiding in a hearse.

In 1944 he was captured by the Gestapo and tortured before being held at the notorious Buchenwald concentration camp.

The spy is recognised by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as 'among the most outstanding workers behind enemy lines whom Britain produced'.

He is the first secret agent to be commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque which was unveiled at Queen Court, Guildford Street, in Camden, London, where he lived with his wife Barbara.

It was unveiled by his niece, Carol Green.

After completing his education, undertaken in France, where he grew up, and in England, Yeo-Thomas joined the Allied armies in the First World War.

It was during this time he was captured by the Russians but killed his guard and fled.

In 1939, Yeo-Thomas joined the RAF.