Nicolas Bodington

Nicolas Redner Bodington OBE (6 June 1904 – 3 July 1974) was a British journalist and soldier.

During the Second World War, he served in the F section of the Special Operations Executive and took part in four missions to France.

Nicolas Bodington was the son of Oliver Bodington international lawyer and Mary (née Redner).

He was born in Paris.

His elder brother was Lieutenant colonel John Redner Bodington, a soldier who served in World War I and World War II.

He married Audrey Hoffmann in Cheltenham in September 1926.

Before the war, he was Reuters's press correspondent in Paris.

There he mixed with Karl Bömelburg, who was later head of the Gestapo in France, and Henri Déricourt, who was later a triple agent.

He also worked for MI6 for a time.

Nicolas Bodington studied at Cheltenham College and (for a year) at Lincoln College, Oxford before becoming a journalist, working from 1930 onwards for the Daily Express.

In 1938 his novel Solo was published in England by Gollancz.

His name is misspelt frequently.

Records of his birth, military service, marriage and death all show that his first name was Nicolas.

This agrees with his name as given on the covers of both of his published books.

In 1940 he joined the F section as its General Staff Officer II, assisting Leslie Humphreys, then, from December, H.R. Marriott.

At the start of 1941, he recruited Virginia Hall and at the start of summer that year, Maurice Buckmaster became Section F's head.

His various cover identities and code names were "Nick", "Andre Edouard", "Jean Paul", "Pierrot" and "Pedlar".

At the start of 1942 Bodington participated in the landing by boat in Brittany which picked up Pierre de Vomécourt, codename Lucas, head of the 'Autogiro' network, and Mathilde Carré, codename Victoire, the famous spy nicknamed La Chatte.

On the night of 29/30 July 1942, he was sent to France to evaluate the value to F Section of collaborating with André Girard's Carte network.

Landing from the sailing ship Seadog at Golfe-Juan, shortly afterwards he made contact with Girard and Henri Frager at Cannes.

He wished to meet with the head of the Vichy Armée d'armistice.

Girard put him in contact with colonel Vautrin, formerly head of Paul Reynaud's cabinet, and asked for large quantities of arms, which Bodington promised to supply.

He met with Peter Churchill, and also went to Lyon to try to undo the chaos that was then reigning there.

On the night of 31 August, Bodington re-embarked on Seadog and sailed for Gibraltar, arriving on 9 September.

When he returned to England, his enthusiastic report on Carte (delivered on 12 September) formed the foundation for the use of Carte's file as the basis for recruitment for the Prosper – 'Physician' network by its heads Francis Suttill (Prosper) and Andrée Borrel (Denise) on their arrival in France.

Major General Colin Gubbins head of SOE wrote of his successful mission, "As a result of his ingenuity, resourcefulness and perseverance, it has been possible to establish close relations with a very important group of French patriots. This contact would not have been successfully made without the personal visit of this officer".

He was recommended for the award of the MBE.

In September 1942, Andrée Borrel was parachuted into France to prepare the way for Suttill who arrived on 1 October 1942.

A wireless operator, Gilbert Norman and a second operator, Jack Agazarian (codename 'Marcel'), followed.

Suttill and Agazarian became increasingly concerned about the loyalty of Déricourt.

In 1943 Bodington supported the candidacy of Henri Déricourt a former civil airline pilot, who was engaged by F section and sent to France in February that year, codenamed Gilbert, to organise aerial rendezvous for F Section.

Francis Suttill had been chosen to establish a new network in and around Paris, called "Prosper" (also called "Physician").

In May 1943, Francis Suttill returned to London and he passed on his fears to Nicolas Bodington and Maurice Buckmaster.

However, they were unconvinced and refused to recall Déricourt to Britain.

Preparing to return to France Bodington discussed the situation with Buckmaster and left a note on record at SOE Headquarters dated 23 June 1943 concerning Dericourt, "we know he is in contact with the Germans and also how and why" (suggesting that he may have been feeding the Germans with false intelligence provided by London. He was decorated with the MBE while temporary major in June 1943.

Bodington, with Agazarian and the Belgian Adelin Marissael were flown into France by a special duties aircraft of No. 161 Squadron RAF which landed near Angers on the night of 22–23 July 1943.

He was to clarify the circumstances surrounding the collapse of the Prosper network in June and the role of Déricourt, who was strongly suspected of having betrayed several agents.

Oddly, it was Déricourt who welcomed them when they landed, in the field Achille 1 km to the southeast of Soucelles.

Bodington and Agazarian travelled to Paris with Dericourt where they tried to establish if Norman was active.

Tossing a coin to choose who would visit Norman's address Agazarian lost and when he visited was arrested by the Gestapo.