CART Auxiliary Unit Research

Captain John Neville Wake Gwynne

20 Jun 1905 - 19 Feb 1981

John Gwynne (from SOE file)

Biography

A substantial local landowner with many local connections, he was a friend of Peter Fleming.

Postings

Unit or location	Role	Posted from	until
Tottington Manor, Small Dole, West Sussex	Intelligence Officer	13 Jul 1940	1941
Sussex	Intelligence Officer	13 Jul 1940	1941
Brandon Mission	SOE Agent	1942	1943
Brandon Mission	SOE Agent	1942	1943

Education

Eton College
Christ Church, Oxford.

Regiment

The Royal Artillery

Military number

37916

Commissioned or Enlisted

11 Mar 1927

Occupation

Lawyer

Career

Date	Detail
11 Mar 1927	Commissioned Second Lieutenant 98th (Surrey & Sussex Yeomanry) Field Brigade Royal Artillery (RA) Territorial Army
11 Mar 1930	Promoted to Lieutenant 98th (Surrey & Sussex Yeomanry) Field Brigade RA
17 Jun 1933	From active list 98th (Surrey & Sussex Yeomanry) Field Brigade RA to be Lieutenant
1938	98th renamed RA Regiment (as all RA field brigades were) and organised into two batteries, each of three troops, each of four guns, a total of 24 guns.
24 Aug 1939	Mobilised as Lieutenant
17 Dec 1939	Acting Captain Transferred to 53 Anti-Tank Regiment RA
09 Jan 1940	Arrived Le Havre to join the British Expeditionary Force
18 Feb 1940	Posted to 210 Battery as Battery Captain
17 Mar 1940	Promoted Temporary Captain
21 May 1940	210 Battery fought off the German Blitzkrieg and was involved in the defence of the Dunkirk perimeter during which Captain Gwynne was slightly wounded. Evacuation from Dunkirk. 53 Anti-Tank Regiment RA War Diary May 1940
June 1940	Commanded 209 Battery 53 Anti-Tank Regiment
12 Jul 1940	Attended initial Colonel Gubbins Auxiliary Units formation meeting. Joined Auxiliary Units as Sussex Intelligence Officer
27 Sep 1941	P.T.C. (Put through the Cards - a Security Check) before joining SOE
01 Oct 1941	Joined SOE as M/Operations M Sections
01 Apr 1942	Joined the Small Scale Raiding Force (62 Commando) as Planning and Intelligence Officer then moved on to active operations. He took part in Operation Facsimilie in October 1943
09 Aug 1942	War Substantive Captain / Temporary Major Specially Employed (that is to say not with his regiment)
18 Jan 1943	Transferred for Special Operational Duties, in the field 01 Feb 1943
03 Feb 1943	Left UK for North Africa with BRANDON Mission in Algeria and Tunisia
24 Mar 1943	Returned to the UK.
09 Aug 1943	Left UK for Cairo. Appointed as a British Liaison Office and sent to Greece to organise their Resistance. There SOE found itself in an impossible situation, trying to coerce Greeks with diametrically opposed political interests into unified resistance. Civil war erupted between ELAS and EDES in late 1943
01 Sep 1943	An incident occurred on this day resulting in the shooting of a British Soldier.
29 Sep 1943	Major Gwynne experienced some of the tensions in Greece as can be seen in an Account of a Harassing Operation on the Epirus Road that he reported on.
October 1943	Major John Gwynne held while the shooting incident was being investigated. He was exonerated.
November 1943	Hospitalised having caught Malaria
29 Nov 1943	Returned to UK
03 Mar 1944	Left SOE. Posted to P.I.D. (Political Intelligence Department of the Foreign Office)
1945	Officer in Charge of Religious Affairs in the Control Commission of Germany.
11 Apr 1956	Ceases to belong to the Territorial Army Reserve of Officers due to reaching the upper age limit. Granted Honorary Rank of Major.

Other information

In early 1948 John Gwynne successfully applied for a newly generated post as the first Executive Director of the Outward Bound Trust. He spent four successful years laying the foundations and getting Industry support.

Other pictures

Gwynne Extract from file requesting to leave SOE

John Gwynne Obit

References

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/40749/supplement/2077/data.pdf
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/38975/supplement/3810
Army List 1941
The National Archives HS9/640/1
“No Colours or Quest” by Peter Kemp
Foreign Fields by Peter Wilkinson.