Major WILLIAM FRANK THOMPSON

CL1 · Sep 11, 2012

Major WILLIAM FRANK THOMPSON
Former H and B Squadron GHQ Liaison Regiment (Phantom) 124039, Royal Artillery
Who died age 23 on 10 June 1944 POW - executed Bulgaria (SOE op.Mulligatawny)
Son of Edward John and Theodosia Jessup Thompson, of Halifax, Yorkshire. Scholar of Winchester College and Scholar of New College, Oxford.
Joined Royal Artillery 1940
Phantom 1942 - September 1943 (Lt - Captain)
Memoir "There is a Spirit in Europe: a Memoir of Frank Thompson"(T.J. and E.P. Thompson - 1947)
POW - executed Bulgaria (SOE op. Mulligatawny)
Served Phantom as Lieutenant and Captain (left Sep 1943)
SOFIA WAR CEMETERY Sp. Mem.
http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/recce/27235-ghq-liaison-regiment-rac-phantom-roll-honour.html

A Very English Hero: The Making of Frank Thompson
A Very English Hero: The Making of Frank Thompson: Amazon.co.uk: Peter J. Conradi: Books

davidbfpo · Jan 30, 2021

Id'd via Twitter by Asher Pirt, who researches the background Territorial Army soldiers and officers in WW2, about the medal collection and a lengthy biography being sold this month of Major Thompson's radio operator:

Sergeant K. A. J. B. Scott, RCS. S.O.E. ‘Force 133’ late KRRC, ‘dropped’ into Eastern Serbia in April 1944, linking up with Maj Frank Thompson’s ill-fated Operation Claridges in support of Bulgarian Communist Partisans.
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Link: https://twitter.com/PirtAsher/status/1346200274646560773

DNW's entry opens with:

Our receiving station told us that the message was full of errors in transmission, and that the sending operator had omitted his security check message. Now the operator was a certain Sergeant of Signals, K. A. J. Scott, who had the reputation of being one of the best operators our school had turned out. It was unthinkable that these errors could be accidental. We were forced to conclude that he had been captured and was operating under duress...playing back a set in enemy hands is a skilled operation involving double and sometimes triple bluff...So long as they were convinced that they were fooling us, Scott would be safe...We kept up this elaborate game for three months’ (Baker Street Irregular by Bickham Sweet-Escott refers)
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For the full DNW entry and a simply stunning biography: Lot 205, Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria (13 January 2021) | Dix Noonan Webb

I note Major Thompson was a dedicated Communist, his younger brother was the late E.P. Thompson - a historian of some note and that he was - may be still is - seen as a hero in Bulgaria.

DNW include a footnote on major Thompson:

William Frank Thompson, educated at the Dragon School, Winchester College and Oxford University, was a highly gifted classics scholar, linguist and nascent poet of immense promise who became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain in the 1930s under the influence of his close friend Iris Murdoch. His exceptional record of service as a British Army officer began courageously with the Special Reconnaissance Unit ‘Phantom’ in North Africa, the Levant, and the hazardous landings in Sicily in 1943. However, it is his remarkable service with the S.O.E. in Bulgaria that really stands out. Parachuted into Macedonia on 25 January 1944, under the command of Major Mostyn Davies, he was part of Operation Mulligatawny which established links between the British staff and the Bulgarian partisans under Slavcho Transki. When Davies was killed, Thompson assumed command of the mission, now named Claridges, and crossed the frontier into Bulgaria together with Sergeants Scott, Walker and Munroe. All but Scott were killed. The extent to which Thompson’s personal politics were a factor in the outcome of the mission is still debated but there is no doubting his bravery and determination:

‘Along the way, he and his men experienced constant danger from enemy patrols, desertion and treachery by their own ilk, instant betrayal from intimidated villagers and peasants, extreme hunger, verminous lice, vicious sores and scratches from moving at night, bleeding, blistered and calloused feet, bitter cold and pernicious wet; yet, not once did he turn back despite ample good reason for doing so after the first ambush on 18 May. He pressed ahead indomitably to complete his task, however remote and impossible it must have seemed on many occasions. Thompson’s immortality was indeed his own individuality as he assumed the mantle of leading his mission into the heartlands of Axis Bulgaria, an erstwhile T. E. Lawrence of the Balkans or not.’ (Through Hitler’s Backdoor - SOE Operations in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria 1939-1945 by Alan Ogden refers)
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davidbfpo · Jan 25, 2021

For balance here is the major's photo (from Wikipedia):

Wiki refers to his standing in Bulgaria:

He was wounded by the gendarmerie forces, captured and, after a defiant speech in Bulgarian at his show trial, was executed by firing squad in the nearby village of Litakovo.

After the war and the establishment of a Communist government in Bulgaria, the nearby villages of Livage, Lipata, Tsarevi Stragi, Malak Babul, Babul and Zavoya were merged and renamed to Thompson (Томпсън) in the British officer's honour. Similarly, the railway station at Prokopnik, the site of a fierce battle, became "Major Thompson Station".
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Link: Frank Thompson (SOE officer) - Wikipedia

harkness · Jan 25, 2021

1939 Register
Saunders Close, Bledlow, Wycombe R.D., Buckinghamshire
Name - DOB - Occupation - Marital status
Edward Thompson - 09 Apr 1886 - Author & Historian, Air Warden - Married
Theodosia Thompson - 17 Mar 1892 - Unpaid Domestic Duties - Married
William F Thompson - 23 Aug 1920 - Student M College Oxford, Cadet Reserve R A - Single
Phyllis Cartmell (Mathews) - 31 Jul 1920 - Maid Paid Domestic Duties - Single

MongoUK · Jan 30, 2021

Just a pedantic note, it's Asher Pirt.

Think my grandad briefly served with Thompson in H Squadron, before Thompson left Phantom.

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Major WILLIAM FRANK THOMPSON

CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

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Major WILLIAM FRANK THOMPSON

CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

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