Richard Henry Heslop | |
|---|---|
 Richard Heslop in 1943 or 1944 | |
| Nickname(s) | Xavier |
| Born | January 23, 1907 Cierp-Gaud, France[1] |
| Died | January 17, 1973 (aged 65) |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Service | Special Operations Executive British Army |
| Rank | Lieutenant Colonel |
| Unit | Marksman |
| Commands | Marksman |
| Awards | Légion d'honneur, Croix de guerre, Presidential Medal of Freedom |
Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Henry Heslop DSO (23 January 1907 – 17 January 1973) code named Xavier, was an agent in France of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by Nazi Germany or other Axis powers. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.
Heslop undertook two missions to France, the first from July 1942 to June 1943 and the second and more important mission from September 1943 until September 1944. In his second mission, Heslop was the organiser of the Marksman network (or circuit) assisting one of the largest groups of the French Resistance which operated in the mountainous region near the border with Switzerland.
Of the more than 400 SOE agents who worked in France during World War II, M.R.D. Foot, the official historian of the SOE, named Heslop as one of a half-dozen best male agents.[2] Although military rank was not very important in SOE, Heslop was one of only three SOE agents to become a Lt. Colonel along with Francis Cammaerts and George Starr. Heslop's reports to London on his activities were brief, leaving little grist for the historian's mill beyond his book, Xavier, first published in 1970.[3]