Ron Jeffery
Ronald Clarence Jeffery (6 September 1917 – 24 September 2002), also Józef Kawala, Stanisław Jasiński, Sporn and Botkin, was an English soldier and an agent of
Biography
Ron Jeffery was born on 6 September 1917 in
Jeffery spoke three languages; German, French and English. Soon after his capture, he began to develop a basic understanding of the Polish language, which made him very useful to Polish underground fighters. Under forged documents issued under false Polish and German names, Jeffery began to serve as a courier in the Polish underground as a part of several missions to occupied cities such as Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Berlin and Hamburg.[2] He was also a member of selective Kedyw groups (patrole), which carried out executions of Nazi collaborators and traitors sentenced by special Underground courts.
On 5 May 1943 while undercover in Warsaw Jeffery married a Polish woman, Marysia Kaziu, daughter of a Warsaw doctor. They had two children, Patrycja, known as Punia, born in Warsaw in December 1943, and Martin, born in London in September 1946. Marysia and Patrycja rejoined Jeffery after the war in September 1945: Jeffery believed that she was questioned by Kim Philby on her arrival at Croydon airport, and that Philby had also been one of the two agents who had questioned him soon after his arrival in London in 1944.[2]
In late 1943, Jeffery came into contact with Boris Smyslovsky, a German colonel of White Russian origins. Smyslovsky wished to induce the western allies to join a Nazi alliance against the Soviet Union, and was prepared to use Jeffery as a go-between. Smyslovsky arranged for Jeffery to be secretly smuggled via Berlin and Oslo to Stockholm in Sweden, from where he was able to fly to the UK in early 1944. He brought with him reports from the Polish underground to the British government: these included details of the Katyn massacre for which at that time (and until 1990) the Russians placed the blame on the Nazis. His efforts were at first highly regarded but he was subsequently treated with suspicion by many of the British authorities. He was sent back to his previous regiment's former Kent headquarters in Maidstone, where he was obliged to perform only menial duties. Despite his requests, he was not permitted to return to active service on continental Europe in the final months of the war. A disillusioned Jeffery later attributed his treatment specifically to the actions of Kim Philby and other high-ranking Russian agents entrenched in the British system.[2]
After the war, Jeffery migrated from England to New Zealand where he ran a business. There, he compiled his memoirs, Red Runs the
Decorations
- Jeffery was awarded the Armia Krajowa Cross.
- In 1943, Home Army General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski personally awarded Jeffery the Polish Cross of Valour.[3]
- In 1995, the President of Poland, Lech Wałęsa, awarded him the Commander of the Order or Merit, one of the highest honours the Polish Government can bestow on a foreigner.
References
- ^ a b Arnold Pickmere (28 September 2002). "Obituary: Ron Jeffery". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 10 September 2011.
- ^ ISBN 0-908734-00-X
- ISBN 978-83-11-11268-1
Further reading
- Ron Jeffery, "Wisła jak krew czerwona", Wydawnictwo Bellona 2008, ISBN 978-83-11-11268-1
Ron Jeffery, "Red Runs the Vistula", Nevron Associates, (1989)
- The Betrayal, John Anderson, documentary movie, New Zealand 1996, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision