- John Kenneth Macalister
John Kenneth Macalister (
July 19 ,1914 ,Guelph, Ontario ,Canada -September 14 ,1944 ,Buchenwald ) was a Canadian hero ofWorld War II .John Macalister graduated the
Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute (GCVI) and from theUniversity of Toronto , then as aRhodes Scholar studied atOxford University . He was expanding his education further at the Institute of Corporate Law inParis, France when World War II began in 1939. When he took the bar exam, Macalister placed first among over 150 candidates in the British Empire, . Macalister tried to join the infantry but his eyesight was such that he needed thick glasses and as such could not be placed on active duty. However, fluent in theFrench language , John Macalister volunteered for theSpecial Operations Executive F Section where as an agent in France, his thick glasses would actually add to his disguise.Together with fellow Canadian,
Frank Pickersgill , John Macalister was parachuted into occupied France onJune 20 ,1943 to work as wireless operator for the "Archdeacon" network in theArdennes area. They were met by agentYvonne Rudellat , but were stopped by theGestapo who had been tipped by an informer. Some believe that the Germans recognized him as an agent by virtue of his rather poor French accent. Although they tried to get away, shots were fired and Rudellat was hit causing the car to crash. They were taken toFresnes prison where they were interrogated and tortured repeatedly. Macalister steadfastly refused to reveal his security checks to the Germans who had his codes and were anxious to send misleading messages back to the SOE's London headquarters. Macalister gave his interrogators nothing and when his captors tried to send messages, SOE recognized them as fake.Unable to get anything of value from him, the security forces shipped John Macalister, along with
Frank Pickersgill andRoméo Sabourin toBuchenwald concentration camp onAugust 27 ,1944 . They were known as theRobert Benoist group, executed at Buchenwald onSeptember 14 ,1944 .Captain John Macalister is honored on the Brookwood Memorial, Surrey in
Brookwood, Surrey ,England and as one of the SOE agents who died for the liberation ofFrance , he is listed on the "Roll of Honor" on theValençay SOE Memorial in the town ofValençay , in theIndre département of France.
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