Paul McCue Books

André Maugenet was born 28 December 1904 in Déols, Indre (36), France, the son of Jules and Henriette Maugenet. His SOE file, which includes his MI 5 interrogation at the Royal Victoria Patriotic School, Wandsworth, following his arrival in the UK, relates a complex past. There is no record of his education or early life, but after service in the French Foreign Legion (see below) he had been employed by a prospecting company in east Africa, had worked as a hotel manager in Aden and finally, in the two or three years preceding the war, as a supervisor of ‘native labour’ for Shell at Port Said. He was married to Annie Maugenet (née Hay), a British subject from Scotland, but although his file does not show it, Maugenet had an undisclosed previous marriage, to Hermine Pollet, with two daughters, Josette and Jeanine. His mother was dead, but his father and a sister were still resident in France.

Maugenet had served with the French Foreign Legion, but had deserted. When war broke out in 1939 he was recalled into the French Army in Syria, but after the fall of France he deserted again in order to join the Free French forces.......[Remainder of case study is complete - contact author for further details].