The Lost Band of Brothers (45 page)

Men of 7 Commando working on
I’m Alone
at low tide, Isle of Arran. Gus March-Phillipps (?) before mast, Geoffrey Appleyard (?) ashore beside boat’s leg. (Maggie Higham)

The Antelope Inn, Poole, Dorset. First Headquarters of Maid Honor force and scene of early planning and celebration dinners. (Author’s collection)

Maid Honor
at sea. Geoffrey Appleyard in swimming trunks. Gus March-Phillipps bending forward astern. (Appleyard family)

The Brixham fishing ketch
Maid Honor.
Built in 1925 and 70 feet long, she was requisitioned by March-Phillipps in 1941 and converted to a ‘Q’ ship. Intended to lure German ships to their doom in the English Channel, she ended her days on the African coast. (Lt Col David Owen MBE; artist: John Turk of Brixton)

The Arne Peninsula, Poole harbour, where
Maid Honor
was moored and the early volunteers for what became the Maid Honor force lived aboard ship. Today’s SBS base at Hamworthy lies on the far shore. (Author’s collection)

St Nicholas Chapel, Arne, where Geoffrey Appleyard and crewmen came to pray. (Author’s collection)

Clandestine photograph taken of
Duchessa d’Aosta
, Fernando Po. (The National Archives)

Marjorie Stewart. The strong-willed West End actress who went on to train as an SOE agent. When they met at SOE in Baker Street, she led Gus March-Phillipps to believe she was the lift girl. She did her early SOE parachute training unaware she was pregnant with Gus March-Phillipps’ daughter, Henrietta. (March-Phillipps family)

Marjorie Stewart on the day of her wedding to Gus March-Phillipps, 18 April 1942, with her younger brother David. Brigadier Colin Gubbins, SOE’s Director of Training and Operations, attended the wedding. (March-Phillipps family)

Anderson Manor, Dorset. Home and secret headquarters to the select band of men who formed 62 Commando – the Small Scale Raiding Force. (Author’s collection)

St Michael’s Chapel at Anderson where Tony Hall and Gus March-Phillipps sought strength before Operation
Aquatint.
(Author’s collection)

Lt Freddie Bourne.
A frequent visitor at Anderson Manor, Bourne took part in seventeen operations with SSRF for which he was awarded the DSC. Skipper of MTB 344 on the ill-fated Operation
Aquatint
to what was to become
Omaha
beach on the Normandy coast. (Chris Rooney)