Anthony Frederick Mark PALMER

Sir Anthony Frederick Mark Palmer, 4th Bart. Major 63572 Royal Artillery attached to Special Operations Executive. Born 29 August 1914 at Tamworth, Staffordshire to Frederick Charles and Mabel Frances Palmer of Shurdington Court, Shurdington, Gloucestershire. Husband of Lady Henriette Palmer of Fairford, Gloucestershire. Missing in action in the Middle East on Operation Boatswain with the S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive) 18 May 1941 aged 26 years. Commemorated on the Brookwood 1949-1945 Memorial, Surrey.

Photograph credited to Special Forces Roll of Honour

Credit the following to http://www.jwmww2.org/Operation_boatswain

"Operation Boatswain" was the first of the operational missions carried out by the Palmach as part of the cooperation between the Jewish Yishuv in Mandatory Palestine and the British during World War II.

In the early summer of 1941, the British military authorities agreed to joint operations against Vichy France forces in Lebanon and Syria. The first planned action was a sabotage mission against oil installations at Tripoli, Lebanon. It was feared that the refinery would provide the Wehrmacht aircraft fuel and help thwart the planned invasion of Lebanon and Syria. The refinery was in an area well-fortified by a unit of Senegalese troops from hostile French army.

On Friday 18th. May 1941 the "Sea Lion" (in Hebrew Ari Hayam) Commando boat embarked from Haifa Port on "Operation Boatswain". Aboard the boat were, SOE Officer Major Sir Anthony Palmer and 23 Hagana members. Their mission was to destroy the oil refineries near Tripoli in Lebanon. The Commandos disappeared without carrying out their mission and they are missing ever since.