Jacques Legrand (resistance leader)

Jacques Legrand
Born24 October 1906
Douai
Died30 June 1944
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, Austria
OrganizationRéseau Gloria

Jacques Legrand (24 October 1906 – 30 June 1944) was a French Resistance leader and a chemical engineer at the Curie Institute in Paris.

Pre-war life

Legrand was born in Douai, France on 24 October 1906.[1] He worked as a chemical engineer at the Curie Institute in Paris.[2] Legrand was an avid amateur sailor in his spare time prior to the war.[3]

World War II

Legrand joined the French Army in October 1939, following the outbreak of World War II. He served in an anti-aircraft battery during the Battle of France.[4] Legrand was the co-founder of the Réseau Gloria along with Gabrielle Picabia and served as the leader of the network.[5] Réseau Gloria operated during the German occupation of France during World War II with the primary task of gathering naval and maritime intelligence.[4] The network was in touch with the British Secret Intelligence Service and with the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Legrand's codename with SOE was "Jack Tar" and he was referred to as "SMH" and "Bernard" within his own network.[6][7] He mostly recruited academics and college professors for intelligence gathering within his network.[8] Legrand and Réseau Gloria provided information, photographs, and maps to American Virginia Hall, among others.[9] Among the members of Legrand's cell was Samuel Beckett, who served mostly as a courier.[10][11] The network was infiltrated by Catholic priest and collaborator Robert Alesch in 1942.[12]

Arrest and death

Acting on intelligence provided by Alesch, Legrand was arrested by the Germans on 13 August 1942, effectively ending the Réseau Gloria network.[13] He was deported to the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Mauthausen, Austria where he later died in 1944.[14][1]

References

  1. ^ a b "Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database".
  2. ^ Nouzille, Vincent (2007). "14: Les visites de l'étrange abbé". L'espionne: Virginia Hall, une américaine dans la guerre (in French). Fayard. ISBN 9782213647548.
  3. ^ Knowlson, James (1996). Damned to fame: the life of Samuel Beckett. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684808722.
  4. ^ a b Bourrée, Fabrice. "GABRIELLE JEANINE PICABIA, CHEF DU RÉSEAU GLORIA SMH". Museedelaresistanceenligne.org (in French). Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  5. ^ Davies, William (2020). "Beckett and the Resistance". Samuel Beckett and the Second World War. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781350106857.
  6. ^ Ruby, Marcel (1988). "SOE and the French". F Section SOE: The Story of the Buckmaster Network. Pen and Sword Books. p. 26. ISBN 9780850526806.
  7. ^ Knowlson, James (July 24, 2014). "Samuel Beckett's biographer reveals secrets of the writer's time as a French Resistance spy". The Independent. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  8. ^ Berest, Anne (2021). La carte postale (in French). Éditions Grasset. ISBN 9782246820505.
  9. ^ Purnell, Sonia (2020). "Honeycomb of Spies". A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II. Penguin Books. p. 146. ISBN 9780735225312.
  10. ^ Gontarski, S. E. (2014). Edinburgh Companion to Samuel Beckett and the Arts. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748675708.
  11. ^ Bair, Deirdre (1990). "1939–42: "On the trot"". Samuel Beckett: A Biography. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780671691738.
  12. ^ Dugard, Martin (2021). Taking Paris:The Epic Battle for the City of Lights. Penguin Books. ISBN 9780593183106.
  13. ^ Lyman, Robert (2014). Raid sur Amiens (in French). Ixelles Editions. ISBN 9782875154989.
  14. ^ Demetrios, Heather (2021). "Lady Virus". Code Name Badass: The True Story of Virginia Hall. Atheneum Books. p. 136. ISBN 9781534431874.