Alfred Gardyne de Chastelain
Encyclopedia
Alfred George Gardyne de Chastelain, DSO
, OBE
(1906–1974) was a British
businessman, soldier, and secret agent
, noted for his actions during World War II
. He was the father of Canadian
General John de Chastelain
.
, England
, in February 1906, of Anglo-Scots parents and of Huguenot
background, he was educated at Dollar Academy
in Scotland
and the Battersea Polytechnic
in London, from which he received a degree in Petroleum Engineering
. On graduation, he moved to Romania
and worked for Unirea (a British Petroleum
branch) in Bucharest
, rising to a managerial position towards the end of the 1930s. While in Bucharest, he married Marion Elizabeth Walsh, the daughter of Jack Walsh, an American
accountant with Standard Oil of New Jersey in Romania.
, de Chastelain was commissioned into the Artists' Rifles
and became a member of Special Operations Executive
(SOE), with which organisation he conducted sabotage
operations in the Balkans
and served in the North African campaign
.
In late 1943, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, he led a team of two other SOE members (Ivor Porter
and Silviu Meţianu) by parachute
into Romania (Operation Autonomous
), to test the possibility of the country's surrender to the Allies
as the Axis
was losing battles on the Eastern Front
(see Romania during World War II
). Captured by the Romanian Gendarmerie
soon after their landing near Plosca
, Teleorman County
, he and his team were taken into custody as prisoners of war
and held in a Bucharest apartment.
They were all released in August 1944, when Conducător
Ion Antonescu
was overthrown and King
Michael I assumed full powers (see King Michael Coup). Decorated, de Chastelain was demobilised after the war, joining a unit of the Special Air Service
in the Territorial Army.
, Soviet
authorities alleged that he was keeping contacts with Iuliu Maniu
, the leader of the National Peasants' Party
; the latter had opposed both Antonescu's regime and the Soviet occupation of Romania
. During Maniu's trial for treason
(1947), the Minister of the Interior, Teohari Georgescu
, was handed a report which indicated Maniu's alleged contacts with de Chastelain as proof that the politician was a British spy.
Alongside a group of partners, de Chastelain started Griffin Enterprises (1945), a business centered in London and Kent
, dealing in film processing, import and exports and other activities. In 1954, he left that business to accept a post as Vice-President of the Canadian branch of an American oilwell drilling and services company, H. J. Eastman, in Calgary
, Alberta
. Living for several years in Canada and then in Australia
, he returned to Canada in the early 1970s and died in Calgary at the age of 68.
A book giving an account of the SOE Operation in Romania was written by one member of the team, Ivor Porter
, later a British Ambassador
(Operation Autonomous: With SOE in Wartime Rumania, Chatto and Windus
, 1989).
He was a founding member of the Special Forces Club
in Knightsbridge
, and of the Food and Wine Society in Calgary.
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
, OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(1906–1974) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
businessman, soldier, and secret agent
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
, noted for his actions during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He was the father of Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
General John de Chastelain
John de Chastelain
Alfred John Gardyne Drummond de Chastelain is a retired Canadian soldier and diplomat.De Chastelain was born in Romania and educated in England and in Scotland before his family immigrated to Canada in 1954...
.
Early life and stay in Romania
Born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, in February 1906, of Anglo-Scots parents and of Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
background, he was educated at Dollar Academy
Dollar Academy
Dollar Academy was founded in 1818, which makes it the oldest co-educational day and boarding school in the world. The open campus occupies a site in the centre of the thriving town of Dollar in Central Scotland, less than 40 minutes drive from the two main Scottish cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and the Battersea Polytechnic
University of Surrey
The University of Surrey is a university located within the county town of Guildford, Surrey in the South East of England. It received its charter on 9 September 1966, and was previously situated near Battersea Park in south-west London. The institution was known as Battersea College of Technology...
in London, from which he received a degree in Petroleum Engineering
Petroleum engineering
Petroleum engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the activities related to the production of hydrocarbons, which can be either crude oil or natural gas. Subsurface activities are deemed to fall within the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry, which are the activities of...
. On graduation, he moved to Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
and worked for Unirea (a British Petroleum
BP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
branch) in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, rising to a managerial position towards the end of the 1930s. While in Bucharest, he married Marion Elizabeth Walsh, the daughter of Jack Walsh, an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
accountant with Standard Oil of New Jersey in Romania.
Wartime activities with the SOE
On the outbreak of war with Nazi GermanyNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, de Chastelain was commissioned into the Artists' Rifles
Artists' Rifles
The Artists Rifles is a volunteer regiment of the British Army. Raised in London in 1859 as a volunteer light infantry unit, the regiment saw active service during the Boer Wars and World War I, earning a number of battle honours; however, it did not serve outside of Britain during World War II, as...
and became a member of Special Operations Executive
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
(SOE), with which organisation he conducted sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
operations in the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
and served in the North African campaign
North African campaign
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...
.
In late 1943, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, he led a team of two other SOE members (Ivor Porter
Ivor Porter
Ivor F. Porter CMG, OBE is a former British Ambassador and author.-Education:Porter was brought up in the Lake District and educated at Barrow-in-Furness Grammar School and Leeds University.-Special Operations Executive:...
and Silviu Meţianu) by parachute
Paratrooper
Paratroopers are soldiers trained in parachuting and generally operate as part of an airborne force.Paratroopers are used for tactical advantage as they can be inserted into the battlefield from the air, thereby allowing them to be positioned in areas not accessible by land...
into Romania (Operation Autonomous
Operation Autonomous
Operation Autonomous was a clandestine operation carried out on the territory of Romania by the Special Operations Executive set up by Churchill for the duration of the war to assist local Resistance movements.-Participants:...
), to test the possibility of the country's surrender to the Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
as the Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
was losing battles on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
(see Romania during World War II
Romania during World War II
Following the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the Kingdom of Romania officially adopted a position of neutrality. However, the rapidly changing situation in Europe during 1940, as well as domestic political upheaval, undermined this stance. Fascist political forces such as the Iron...
). Captured by the Romanian Gendarmerie
Jandarmeria Româna
Jandarmeria Română is the military branch of the two Romanian police forces .The gendarmerie is subordinated to the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform and does not have responsibility for policing the Romanian Armed Forces...
soon after their landing near Plosca
Plosca
Plosca is a commune in Teleorman County, Romania. It is composed of a single village, Plosca.-Name:The name is probably derived from a container used for water and beverages .-History:...
, Teleorman County
Teleorman County
Teleorman is a county of Romania, in the historical region Muntenia, with its capital city at Alexandria.The name Teleorman is of Cumanic origin. It literally means crazy forest and, by extension, "thick and shadowy forest" in the Cuman language...
, he and his team were taken into custody as prisoners of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
and held in a Bucharest apartment.
They were all released in August 1944, when Conducător
Conducator
Conducător was the title used officially in two instances by Romanian politicians, and earlier by Carol II.-History:...
Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
was overthrown and King
King of Romania
King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
Michael I assumed full powers (see King Michael Coup). Decorated, de Chastelain was demobilised after the war, joining a unit of the Special Air Service
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
in the Territorial Army.
Life in the post-war era
After the start of the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
authorities alleged that he was keeping contacts with Iuliu Maniu
Iuliu Maniu
Iuliu Maniu was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian politician. A leader of the National Party of Transylvania and Banat before and after World War I, he served as Prime Minister of Romania for three terms during 1928–1933, and, with Ion Mihalache, co-founded the National Peasants'...
, the leader of the National Peasants' Party
National Peasants' Party
The National Peasants' Party was a Romanian political party, formed in 1926 through the fusion of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and the Peasants' Party . It was in power between 1928 and 1933, with brief interruptions...
; the latter had opposed both Antonescu's regime and the Soviet occupation of Romania
Soviet occupation of Romania
The Soviet occupation of Romania refers to the period from 1944 to August 1958, during which the Soviet Union maintained a significant military presence in Romania...
. During Maniu's trial for treason
Tamadau Affair
The Tămădău Affair was an incident that took place in Romania in the summer of 1947, the source of a political scandal and show trial.It was provoked when an important number of National Peasants' Party leaders, including party vice president Ion Mihalache, had been offered a chance to flee...
(1947), the Minister of the Interior, Teohari Georgescu
Teohari Georgescu
Teohari Georgescu was a high-ranking member of the Romanian Communist Party.-Life:Born in Bacău, he was the third of seven children of Constantin and Aneta Georgescu. Georgescu, whose formal education ended after the fourth grade, began his career as an assistant in his father's store...
, was handed a report which indicated Maniu's alleged contacts with de Chastelain as proof that the politician was a British spy.
Alongside a group of partners, de Chastelain started Griffin Enterprises (1945), a business centered in London and Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, dealing in film processing, import and exports and other activities. In 1954, he left that business to accept a post as Vice-President of the Canadian branch of an American oilwell drilling and services company, H. J. Eastman, in Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
. Living for several years in Canada and then in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, he returned to Canada in the early 1970s and died in Calgary at the age of 68.
A book giving an account of the SOE Operation in Romania was written by one member of the team, Ivor Porter
Ivor Porter
Ivor F. Porter CMG, OBE is a former British Ambassador and author.-Education:Porter was brought up in the Lake District and educated at Barrow-in-Furness Grammar School and Leeds University.-Special Operations Executive:...
, later a British Ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
(Operation Autonomous: With SOE in Wartime Rumania, Chatto and Windus
Chatto and Windus
Chatto & Windus has been, since 1987, an imprint of Random House, publishers. It was originally an important publisher of books in London, founded in the Victorian era....
, 1989).
He was a founding member of the Special Forces Club
Special Forces Club
The Special Forces Club was founded by surviving members of the Special Operations Executive , in 1946. "The Club", as it is simply known by its members, was established for all secret agents as a home in London....
in Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
, and of the Food and Wine Society in Calgary.