Charles Milne Skepper (26 February 1905 – on or after 4 April 1944) was an economist and socialist intellectual who joined the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) to operate in occupied France during the Second World War carrying out sabotage and spying missions until he was taken prisoner. He was tortured for information and subsequently murdered by the Gestapo.
Pre-war life Skepper was born in Richmond, London, the son of Henry and Mary Skepper. He, his older brother (Edmund Drane Skepper), and his younger sister (Mabel Mary known as Mary) spent much of their early lives in France particularly in Paris,Binney (2005), p.270 although Skepper studied at Queen Elizabeth's School in Cranbrook from September 1914 to July 1920. He was a highly intelligent student with a deep interest in social justice and a gifted linguist from an early age, he learned to speak perfect French and then German and Spanish. In later life he learned some Russian and good Chinese.Binney (2005), p.270 Skepper had deeply held political views from a relatively early age being a serious socialist and after deep consideration over a long period he decided that he was an atheist. He was attracted to theoretical communism and became a member of the "Friends of the Soviet Union" a factor recorded by MI5 in LondonBinney (2005), p.270 and in the late 1920s travelling by train he made two visits to the Soviet Union. These visits changed his earlier positive views of Soviet Communism and turned him away from that path. His father later stated that after his visits he came to regard communism as fascism under a different guise.Binney (2005), p.270
Skepper was a student at the London School of Economics (LSE) from 1926 to 1929, earning a Bachelor of Science degree First in Economics his specialist subject was Sociology. Some older sources state that he gained a BA, however they were apparently based on one single source which has since been digitised and corrected. before a brief period as a graduate student during which time he lived in an apartment on Great Ormond Street, in central London.Ancestry. London. Electoral Registry 1832–1965. Holborn, 1929.1930 with his sister Mabel Mary Skepper who was also a student at the LSE. He did not complete his doctorate but worked as an assistant teacher of Sociology from 1930 to 1932 when he moved home to 27 Gordon Square also in central London.Ancestry. London. Electoral Registry 1832–1965. St.Pancras 1932.1933 In 1931 Skepper was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship.Binney (2005), p.270
Throughout the remainder of the 1930s he was in a partnership operating from near Paris, trading in antiques and travelling in the trade between France and Beijing where he lived for sometime. He became deeply interested in modern art and purchased paintings by Da Silva, Max Ernst and Edouard Cortes, his collection was stolen from the family home at Rueil-Malmaison near Paris during the Second World War.Binney (2005), p.270 On 9 September 1932, while living in Paris, he applied for a visa to visit the United States. He sailed on 24 September 1932 from Le Havre aboard the British ocean liner Samaria, returning some weeks later. On 14 April 1936 he sailed to New York from England aboard the ocean liner Aquitania, declaring himself to be a "Dealer"FindMyPast- Passenger List- Chas M Skepper on a visit to Japan from which he returned sailing from Yokohama for the U.S. on 26 July 1936 aboard the American liner President Jackson with his 61-year-old mother.Ancestry, U.S. Immingration Records, 1936
Travelling to China, he sailed from Southampton for New York again on 2 February 1937 aboard the French steamer Champlain describing himself as a tourist,Ancestry. Passenger Lists. 1937. Charles Milne Skepper] arriving in New York on 9 February 1937 he crossed the U.S. by railway before journeying onward from San Francisco on 20 March 1937 aboard the ocean liner President Taft, bound for Honolulu. On the final leg of his journey Skepper sailed from Honolulu on 8 April 1937 aboard the U.S. ocean liner President Hoover to disembark at Shanghai.Ancestry, Passenger records – Charles Skepper, various
Wartime service In 1939 Skepper volunteered for military service and was appointed to run the propaganda broadcasting station of the British Ministry of Information in Shanghai. When the Japanese invaded Shanghai, he evaded internment and spent time operating with Chinese guerrillas until he was captured by the Japanese, ill-treated, and sentenced to four years in prison for anti-Japanese activities,Alliance Francaise PDF document -p.13 having been accused of helping four American marines to escape. However, he was repatriated when he was included in an exchange of diplomats between the United Kingdom and Japan in December 1941.Binney (2005), p.271 Skepper returned to England in August 1942.Binney (2005), p.271
Special Operations Executive In late summer 1942 he applied to join the Special Operations Executive citing Morris Ginsberg LSE "Martin White Professor of Sociology" as a referee and passing stringent examination and "vetting" he was accepted for "F" (French) Section despite being near the top of the upper age limit.National Archives, London. Document HS 9/1370/1 He commenced training at the SOE school based at Wanborough Manor in West Surrey learning aspects of the trade such as navigation, parachuting, killing with and without weapons, behaviour if captured, explosives and demolition, wireless and cyphers, shooting with pistols, sub-machine guns and rifles and familiarity with captured enemy weapons. A report in his file dated 27 March 1943 stated "He has done extremely well in training".National Archives, London. Document HS 9/1370/1 To make his position more certain for official purposes on 16 June 1943 he became lieutenantBinney (2005), p.271 on the British Army "General List" of "non-regimentally employed" officers with the military service number of 270156
With several codenames, including "Henri Edouard Truchot" and "Bernard", Skepper was landed in France by an RAF Special Duties Westland Lysander of No. 161 Squadron RAF on the night 16–17 June 1943 to organise a new resistance and espionage ring in the Marseille region which would be known as the "Monk circuit".National Archives, London, Recommendation for award – WO373/101/150- Capt. C M Skepper, General List]Alliance Francaise PDF document -p.13National Archives, London. Document HS 9/1370/1 to work with the French Resistance in the "Monk Circuit" operating in the Marseilles region. Skepper was flown in with a fellow agent Diana Rowden by the specialist covert operations pilot Flying Officer Jimmy McCairns DFC and 2 Bars MM. It was a double aircraft operation to land a number of agents in the Loire valley seven miles north east of Angers. The two aircraft carried Skepper, Cecily Lefort, Diana Rowden, and Noor Inayat Khan.Foot (1966), p.292-293 Three days later he was joined by his radio operator Arthur Steele code named "Laurent" who landed by parachute.Binney (2005), p.272
Over a period of nine months in the Marseille area he travelled extensively pretending to be an antiques dealer and using a case of his own antique jade objects as cover.Binney (2005), p.272 Skepper built up an extremely effective sabotage group and organised a number of significant acts of sabotage. Skepper was noted to have always personally led operations and taken on the dangerous role of receiving parachuted supplies from England. Among the many acts of sabotage he led was an attack on a synthetic oil plant regarded as vital to the German war effort. Located at L'Estaque three oil tanks were destroyed and six damaged, he also led the mission to block an important rail tunnel near the Italian border by derailing a train inside the tunnel between Cassis and Aubagne and blew up the cement works used by the German military at Fos-sur-MerAlliance Francaise PDF document -p.18 In between these major operations he blew up railway tracks, power lines and damaged railway engines whenever possibleNational Archives, London, Recommendation for award – WO373/101/150- Capt. C M Skepper, General List]National Archives, London. Document HS 9/1370/1
On the night of 13–14 August 1943 a new agent Eliane Plewman parachuted in to Jura to join their team.Foot (1966), p.256 In the first two weeks of January 1944 Skepper's "Monk circuit" was responsible for damaging 31 railway locomotives, during February 1944 he organised 5 parachute drops of arms, ammunition and explosives and on 6 March 1944 met Jack Sinclair as he parachuted in to join the network before they organised and led a mission which resulted in damaging over 30 railway locomotives in a single day on 15 March 1944.Binney (2005), p.272Alliance Francaise PDF document -p.18
Betrayal and imprisonment Skepper was arrested with others on 23, 24 or 25 March 1944 (dates vary with sources) in the apartment where he had been staying in Rue MerentieAlliance Francaise PDF document -p.20 with French friends of the Villevieille family after betrayal by a French national (Bousquet) working for the Gestapo. The traitor was identified and executed after the war. Everybody at the apartment was taken away while Bousquet and the Gestapo made the place look as normal as possible so that they could wait and trap any members of Skepper's team who visited. On the next day his radio operator Arthur Steele was arrested as was one of his agents Eliane Plewman code name "Gaby" and several French members.Foot (1966), p.375-377Binney (2005), p.273-274 No arrests happened other than of people coming to that address which indicates that under torture no names were given away.Binney (2005), p.275
At the Baumettes prison and at Gestapo headquarters in 425 Rue Paradis Marseille[Alliance Francaise PDF document -p.25-28] the Gestapo tortured their three British captives by delivering very powerful electric shocks between the eyes and the results were so bad that when the British were seen by French prisoners they were almost unrecognisable.Binney (2005), p.274-275 When Skepper was seen in the Gestapo offices in the custody of Gestapo Agent Dunker by Villevielle two weeks after their arrests he also reported being unable to recognise his friend.Alliance Francaise PDF document -p.29
It is noted that SS-Obersturmführer Ernst Dunker (born 27 January 1912 in Halle) was tried post-war in France for his crimes and executed on 6 June 1950 in Marseille.Axis History Forum – Ernst Dunker
Fate Initial reports in his SOE fileNational Archives, London. Document HS 9/1370/1 were that he was killed rather than arrested; there was certainly a serious scuffle during the arrest but later information suggested that he was seized, interrogated and tortured by the Gestapo and probably sent to Germany. In the recommendation for Skepper's MBE reportedly originally an OBE but later downgradedBinney (2005), p.273 written by Major General Colin Gubbins the head of SOE on 8 December 1945 he stated that "Captain Skepper was arrested. He was severely tortured by the Gestapo and later transported to Fresnes and then to Compiegne prison. There has been no news of him since".National Archives, London, Recommendation for award – WO373/101/150- Capt. C M Skepper, General List]