Frank Thompson (SOE officer) - Revision history

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← Older revision		Revision as of 13:01, 15 December 2022
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	{{short description\|British Army officer}}		{{short description\|British Army officer}}
	{{Use dmy dates\|date=July 2021}}		{{Use dmy dates\|date=July 2021}}
			{{Other people\|William Thompson}}
	{{Infobox military person		{{Infobox military person
	\|name= Frank Thompson		\|name= Frank Thompson
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	\|unit= [[Special Operations Executive]]		\|unit= [[Special Operations Executive]]
	\|commands=		\|commands=
	\|battles= [[Second World War]] {{~~Executed~~}}		\|battles= [[Second World War]] {{KIA}}
	\|awards=		\|awards=
	\|relations= [[E. P. Thompson]] (brother)		\|relations= [[E. P. Thompson]] (brother)
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	He served in England, North Africa, Syria, Iraq, Sicily, Serbia and Bulgaria. He was part of the [[Special Operations Executive]].<ref>Kristen Ghodsee, ''The Left Side of History: World War II and the Unfulfilled Promise of Communism in Eastern Europe''. Durham: Duke University Press, 2015 {{ISBN\|978-0-8223-5835-0}}</ref>		He served in England, North Africa, Syria, Iraq, Sicily, Serbia and Bulgaria. He was part of the [[Special Operations Executive]].<ref>Kristen Ghodsee, ''The Left Side of History: World War II and the Unfulfilled Promise of Communism in Eastern Europe''. Durham: Duke University Press, 2015 {{ISBN\|978-0-8223-5835-0}}</ref>

	On 25 January 1944, along with three other [[commandos]], Major Thompson was sent on a [[parachute]] landing mission to establish a link between the British staff and the Bulgarian partisans led by {{Interlanguage link multi\|Slavcho Transki\|bg\|Славчо Трънски}}; he landed near [[Dobro Pole]], [[Macedonia (region)\|Macedonia]]. The commandos carried a radio to keep in contact with the staff in [[Cairo]], [[Egypt]] and [[Bari]], [[Italy]], but it broke down. On 23 May, Thompson took part in the clash at the village of [[~~Batuliya~~]] between the [[Bulgarian Gendarmerie]] and the Second [[Sofia]] Brigade of National Liberation of the partisans. He was wounded by the gendarmerie forces, captured and, after a defiant speech in Bulgarian at his show trial, was [[executed by firing squad]] in the nearby village of [[Litakovo]].<ref>Frank Thompson's grave in Litakovo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEHtLqB_tM4</ref><ref name = "Dyson1979"/>		On 25 January 1944, along with three other [[commandos]], Major Thompson was sent on a [[parachute]] landing mission to establish a link between the British staff and the Bulgarian partisans led by {{Interlanguage link multi\|Slavcho Transki\|bg\|Славчо Трънски}}; he landed near [[Dobro Pole]], [[Macedonia (region)\|Macedonia]]. The commandos carried a radio to keep in contact with the staff in [[Cairo]], [[Egypt]] and [[Bari]], [[Italy]], but it broke down. On 23 May, Thompson took part in the clash at the village of [[Batulia]] between the [[Bulgarian Gendarmerie]] and the Second [[Sofia]] Brigade of National Liberation of the partisans. He was wounded by the gendarmerie forces, captured and, after a defiant speech in Bulgarian at his show trial, was [[executed by firing squad]] in the nearby village of [[Litakovo]].<ref>Frank Thompson's grave in Litakovo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEHtLqB_tM4</ref><ref name = "Dyson1979"/>

	After the war and the establishment of a Communist government in Bulgaria, the nearby villages of Livage, Lipata, Tsarevi Stragi, Malak Babul, Babul and Zavoya were merged and renamed to [[Thompson, Bulgaria\|Thompson]] (''Томпсън'') in the British officer's honour<!-- on the idea of Transki, who had been promoted to [[General]] -->. Similarly, the railway station at Prokopnik, the site of a fierce battle, became "Major Thompson Station".<ref name= "Dyson1979"/>		After the war and the establishment of a Communist government in Bulgaria, the nearby villages of Livage, Lipata, Tsarevi Stragi, Malak Babul, Babul and Zavoya were merged and renamed to [[Thompson, Bulgaria\|Thompson]] (''Томпсън'') in the British officer's honour<!-- on the idea of Transki, who had been promoted to [[General]] -->. Similarly, the railway station at Prokopnik, the site of a fierce battle, became "Major Thompson Station".<ref name= "Dyson1979"/>
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	;Bibliography		;Bibliography
	* {{cite news \|url=http://www.segabg.com/online/article.asp?issueid=572&sectionid=5&id=00004 \|archive-url=https://archive.is/20130202093415/http://www.segabg.com/online/article.asp?issueid=572&sectionid=5&id=00004 \|url-status=dead \|archive-date=2 February 2013 \|title=За Франк и тримата командоси \|last=Иванов \|first=Димитри \|date=8 November 2005 \|access-date=23 August 2008 \|publisher=СЕГА \|language=bg }}		* {{cite news \|url=http://www.segabg.com/online/article.asp?issueid=572&sectionid=5&id=00004 \|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130202093415/http://www.segabg.com/online/article.asp?issueid=572&sectionid=5&id=00004 \|url-status=dead \|archive-date=2 February 2013 \|title=За Франк и тримата командоси \|last=Иванов \|first=Димитри \|date=8 November 2005 \|access-date=23 August 2008 \|publisher=СЕГА \|language=bg }}
	* {{cite web \|url=http://www.svoge.bg/?news_id=155&&lang=1 \|title=Майор Томпсън{{mdash}} мост за заздравяване сътрудничеството между община Своге и посолството на Великобритания \|access-date=23 August 2008 \|publisher=Община Своге \|language=bg }}		* {{cite web \|url=http://www.svoge.bg/?news_id=155&&lang=1 \|title=Майор Томпсън{{mdash}} мост за заздравяване сътрудничеството между община Своге и посолството на Великобритания \|access-date=23 August 2008 \|publisher=Община Своге \|language=bg }}
	* [http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2224481 CWGC entry]		* [http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2224481 CWGC entry]
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	[[Category:People executed by Bulgaria by firing squad]]		[[Category:People executed by Bulgaria by firing squad]]
	[[Category:~~Executed~~ British people]]		[[Category:British people executed abroad]]
	[[Category:British World War II prisoners of war]]		[[Category:British World War II prisoners of war]]
	[[Category:British Special Operations Executive personnel]]		[[Category:British Special Operations Executive personnel]]
	[[Category:British ~~military~~ personnel killed in World War II]]		[[Category:British Army personnel killed in World War II]]
	[[Category:Royal Artillery officers]]		[[Category:Royal Artillery officers]]
	[[Category:Linguists from the United Kingdom]]		[[Category:Linguists from the United Kingdom]]
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	[[Category:1944 deaths]]		[[Category:1944 deaths]]
	[[Category:~~Executed~~ Indian people]]		[[Category:Indian people executed abroad]]
	[[Category:20th-century executions by Bulgaria]]		[[Category:20th-century executions by Bulgaria]]
	[[Category:20th-century linguists]]		[[Category:20th-century linguists]]
			[[Category:Military personnel of British India]]
			[[Category:Special Operations Executive personnel killed in World War II]]

>Dawnseeker2000: date format audit, minor formatting

2021-07-08T09:38:56Z

date format audit, minor formatting

New page

{{short description|British Army officer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
|name= Frank Thompson
|image= Major William Frank Thompson of SOE.jpg
|image_size=
|alt=
|caption= Major William Frank Thompson of SOE
|birth_name= William Frank Thompson
|birth_date= {{Birth date|1920|08|17|df=yes}}
|death_date= {{Death date and age|1944|06|10|1920|08|17|df=yes}}
|birth_place= [[Darjeeling]], [[British Raj|British India]]
|death_place= [[Litakovo]], [[Kingdom of Bulgaria]]
|placeofburial= Sofia War Cemetery
|nickname=
|allegiance= {{flag|United Kingdom}}
|branch= [[British Army]]
|serviceyears= 1939–1944
|rank= [[Major]]
|servicenumber=
|unit= [[Special Operations Executive]]
|commands=
|battles= [[Second World War]] {{Executed}}
|awards=
|relations= [[E. P. Thompson]] (brother)
|laterwork=
}}
[[Major]] '''William Frank Thompson''' (17 August 1920 – 10 June 1944) was a British [[Officer (armed forces)|officer]] who acted as a [[Liaison officer|liaison]] between the [[British Army]] and the [[Bulgarian resistance movement during World War II|Bulgarian communist partisans]] during the [[Second World War]].

==Early life, family, and education==
Thompson was born in [[Darjeeling]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[British Raj|British India]] to a British missionary family. He was educated at [[Winchester College]] and [[New College, Oxford]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Simms|first1=Brendan|title=A major, a martyr, a train station|url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/books/a-major-a-martyr-a-train-station/160002.article|publisher=Times Higher Education|access-date=11 January 2015|date=7 July 1997}}</ref> [[Freeman Dyson]], a fellow pupil at Winchester, has described Thompson's extraordinary facility with diverse languages and that "Frank was the largest, the loudest, the most uninhibited and the most brilliant." Dyson "learned from him more than I learned from anybody else at the school".<ref name="Dyson1979">{{cite book |last1=Dyson |first1=Freeman J. |title=Disturbing the universe |date=1979 |publisher=Harper & Row |location=New York |isbn=0465016774 |pages=34–39 |edition=1st}}</ref>

His younger brother, [[E.P. Thompson]], was an English historian, socialist and peace campaigner.<ref name="Rattenbury"/>

==Second World War==
In 1939, while studying at the [[University of Oxford]], he became a member of the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] under the influence of his close friend [[Iris Murdoch]]. Despite his affiliation, he did not support the party's policy of neutrality dictated by the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact]] and joined the [[British Army]] with service number 124039 as a volunteer training with the No. 122 Officer Cadet Training Regiment before being commissioned [[Second Lieutenant]] into the [[Royal Artillery]] on 2 March 1940.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34806|supp=y|page=1367|date=5 March 1940}}</ref>
He served in England, North Africa, Syria, Iraq, Sicily, Serbia and Bulgaria. He was part of the [[Special Operations Executive]].<ref>Kristen Ghodsee, ''The Left Side of History: World War II and the Unfulfilled Promise of Communism in Eastern Europe''. Durham: Duke University Press, 2015 {{ISBN|978-0-8223-5835-0}}</ref>

On 25 January 1944, along with three other [[commandos]], Major Thompson was sent on a [[parachute]] landing mission to establish a link between the British staff and the Bulgarian partisans led by {{Interlanguage link multi|Slavcho Transki|bg|Славчо Трънски}}; he landed near [[Dobro Pole]], [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]]. The commandos carried a radio to keep in contact with the staff in [[Cairo]], [[Egypt]] and [[Bari]], [[Italy]], but it broke down. On 23 May, Thompson took part in the clash at the village of [[Batuliya]] between the [[Bulgarian Gendarmerie]] and the Second [[Sofia]] Brigade of National Liberation of the partisans. He was wounded by the gendarmerie forces, captured and, after a defiant speech in Bulgarian at his show trial, was [[executed by firing squad]] in the nearby village of [[Litakovo]].<ref>Frank Thompson's grave in Litakovo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEHtLqB_tM4</ref><ref name = "Dyson1979"/>

After the war and the establishment of a Communist government in Bulgaria, the nearby villages of Livage, Lipata, Tsarevi Stragi, Malak Babul, Babul and Zavoya were merged and renamed to [[Thompson, Bulgaria|Thompson]] (''Томпсън'') in the British officer's honour. Similarly, the railway station at Prokopnik, the site of a fierce battle, became "Major Thompson Station".<ref name= "Dyson1979"/>

E.P. Thompson wrote two books about his brother, the first with his mother, ''There is a Spirit in Europe: A Memoir of Frank Thompson''. The second, ''Beyond the Frontier: the Politics of a Failed Mission, Bulgaria 1944'', appeared in 1996.<ref name="Rattenbury" >Rattenbury, A., 1997. Convenient Death of a Hero. Review of ''Beyond the Frontier: the Politics of a Failed Mission, Bulgaria 1944'' by Thompson, E. P. ''London Review of Books'' [Online] vol. 19 no. 9 pp. 12–13. Available from <u>http://www.lrb.co.uk/v19/n09/arnold-rattenbury/convenient-death-of-a-hero</u> [Retrieved 2 March 2011].</ref><ref name="Frontier 1996">''Beyond the Frontier: the Politics of a Failed Mission, Bulgaria 1944'' by E. P. Thompson. Merlin/Stanford, 120 pp, £12.95, December 1996, {{ISBN|0-85036-457-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=The ups and downs of Major Thompson|journal=The Spectator| url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_199703/ai_n8762101//|date=29 March 1997|author=Brisby, Liliana}}</ref>

==Honours==
[[Thompson Hill]] in [[Antarctica]] is named after Frank Thompson.

==References==
;Footnotes
{{reflist|30em}}

;Bibliography
* {{cite news |url=http://www.segabg.com/online/article.asp?issueid=572&sectionid=5&id=00004 |archive-url=https://archive.is/20130202093415/http://www.segabg.com/online/article.asp?issueid=572&sectionid=5&id=00004 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 February 2013 |title=За Франк и тримата командоси |last=Иванов |first=Димитри |date=8 November 2005 |access-date=23 August 2008 |publisher=СЕГА |language=bg }}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.svoge.bg/?news_id=155&&lang=1 |title=Майор Томпсън{{mdash}} мост за заздравяване сътрудничеството между община Своге и посолството на Великобритания |access-date=23 August 2008 |publisher=Община Своге |language=bg }}
* [http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2224481 CWGC entry]
* Stowers Johnson, ''Agents extraordinary'', {{ISBN|9780709151623}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last=Conradi|first=Peter J. |author-link=Peter J. Conradi|title=A Very English Hero: The Making of Frank Thompson|year=2012|isbn=978-1-408802-43-4}}
* {{cite book |title=There is a spirit in Europe: A memoir of Frank Thompson |publisher=[[Victor Gollancz Ltd|Victor Gollancz]] |author1= William Frank Thompson |author2= Theodosia Jessup Thompson | author3= Edward Palmer Thompson|author-link3=E. P. Thompson |year=1947 }}
* {{cite book |title=Beyond the frontier: the politics of a failed mission, Bulgaria 1944 |publisher=Merlin Press |location=[[Woodbridge, Suffolk]] |isbn=0-85036-457-4 |oclc=36580862 |last=Thompson |first=E. P |author-link=E. P. Thompson |year=1997 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/beyondfrontier0000unse }}
* [[Kristen R. Ghodsee]], "[https://web.archive.org/web/20131102063721/http://www.vagabond.bg/features/2629-who-was-frank-thompson.html Who was Frank Thompson]?" ''Vagabond Magazine'', No. 85, November 2013.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Frank}}
[[Category:People executed by Bulgaria by firing squad]]
[[Category:Executed British people]]
[[Category:British World War II prisoners of war]]
[[Category:British Special Operations Executive personnel]]
[[Category:British military personnel killed in World War II]]
[[Category:Royal Artillery officers]]
[[Category:Linguists from the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:People educated at Winchester College]]
[[Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Communist Party of Great Britain members]]
[[Category:People from Darjeeling]]
[[Category:1920 births]]
[[Category:1944 deaths]]
[[Category:Executed Indian people]]
[[Category:20th-century executions by Bulgaria]]
[[Category:20th-century linguists]]