A beautifully captured tribute to Major Francis Suttill DSC, 1910 – 1945

In March this year I had the privilege of attending the ceremony for the unveiling of a plaque honouring the service and sacrifice of Francis Suttill, leader of the ill-fated PROSPER circuit in Paris.

This very moving ceremony has been captured by a French film company and can be watched by following this link to YouTube here. This short film is written and directed by Olivier Fély-Biolet, and produced by Autour de Nous Productions, in partnership with Les Trois Chênes Productions.

I would like to take this opportunity to praise the determination and dogged persistence of Bill Beauclerk of Libre Résistance in organising not just this unveiling but the installation of the plaque itself.

Of course as Ian Titman rightly points out in the clip, we all owe a debt of gratitude to Francis Suttill's son, named after him, who dedicated his life to researching and defending his father's record.

His book ‘ Prosper: Major Suttill’s French resistance Network’ should be considered the most authoritative on the subject.

I think it appropriate to include here mention of some of the other key players in this tragedy:

Andrée Borrel, Suttil's courier, notoriously murdered  most brutally at Natzweiler.

Gilbert Norman his radio operator, killed at Mauthausen.

Noor Inayatt Khan left exposed and vulnerable by the collapse of the circuit.  Betrayed, captured and after much suffering, killed at Dachau.

Many others were swept up in the maelstrom of arrests.  Tortured, deported or executed.  Those who survived their experiences often continued to suffer the consequences long after the war.