Major John Geoffrey APPLEYARD DSO, MC*
RASC, SOE, SAS
With BEF in France 1939-40;joined SOE January 1941;rescued members of Savanna, a French raiding party, by sea, 4/5 April 1941; took part in Operation Postmaster – the cutting out of three Axis ships from a neutral port, 1 January 1942; established the Small Scale Raiding Force (No 62 Commando) with Gus March-Phillipps, after whose death he assumed command, September 1942; went to North Africa with members of the disbanded SSRF to join 2 SAS, February 1943; led a raid on Pantellaria but was killed on an airborne operation to Sicily, 12/13 July 1943.
