François Thierry-Mieg

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François Thierry-Mieg MBE (1908–1995) was a senior officer in France’s Free French intelligence during World War II. After the war began, he fought in the Battle of France and was captured by the Germans, but escaped to the Soviet Union in January 1941, where he spent a few months in NKVD prisons. After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, he joined General de Gaulle in London, became a captain with the Free French, and used the code name “Vaudreuil.” He led the French Military Mission to Gibraltar and helped prepare for the Allied invasion of North Africa (Operation Torch).

In 1943 he headed one of the BCRA’s intelligence units and helped organize the French Resistance, coordinating intelligence and sabotage. His mother, Marcelle Thierry-Mieg, was a Resistance member who was arrested by the Gestapo in June 1943 and died in Ravensbrück in 1945.

After D-Day he served with the 2nd Armored Division and later was deputy to Colonel Passy in 1944. He received the Medal of Freedom with bronze palm and the Resistance Medal for his service.

After the war, he became chief of staff to General Henri Riviere, head of the postwar Service of External Documentation and Counter-Espionage (1946–1951). He then left the army and went into business. He was also an accomplished sailor and competed in the Dragon class at the 1960 Summer Olympics. His daughter Pascale married Sir Christopher Mallaby, a British ambassador to Germany and France.