Major Joseph Antoine France Antelme OBE (12 March 1900 – 1944), no. 239255, was one of 14 Franco-Mauritians who served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a World War II British secret service that sent espionage agents, saboteurs and guerrilla fighters into enemy-occupied territory. After being involved in undercover operations in Vichy-held Madagascar ahead of the allied landings there in May 1942, Antelme joined the SOE F (France) section in England. He undertook two missions in occupied France. On this third mission, early on 29 February 1944, he, along with SOE operatives Lionel Lee and Madeleine Damerment, parachuted under cover of darkness to a reception committee composed of the German Gestapo, and were captured. In accordance with Adolf Hitler's "Nacht und Nebel" directive regarding irregular combatants, he and 18 other captured SOE officers were executed at the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in Lower Silesia in July or August 1944. Early life France Antelme was born on 12 March 1900 in Curepipe, Mauritius, to an influential family of planters and politicians. After attending the Royal College Curepipe, he embarked on a career as broker and trader, travelling extensively between Mauritius, Réunion, Madagascar and South Africa. In 1932, he settled in Durban, Union of South Africa, as Madagascar's trade representative in South Africa. The following year he married Doris O'Toole. They had two sons, Michel and Gaston. Todd mission Antelme was recruited by the SOE in November 1941 in Durban, South Africa where he was serving with the South African artillery. He formed part of the Todd mission, led by Lt. Col. J.E.S. Todd, whose task it was to gather intelligence on Madagascar and to try to win political leaders to the allied cause ahead of Operation Ironclad, the British landing at Diego Suarez, on 5 May 1942. He was landed by boat near Majunga (Mahajanga), Madagascar on 8 February 1942, and brought back political and military intelligence from the island, where he had many contacts. After serving at the Todd mission's operational headquarters in Dar es Salaam, Antelme was sent to England where he joined the SOE F section on 1 July 1942. He underwent training at Beaulieu and at Arisaig, Scotland. Missions to France On his first mission to France, from November 1942 to March 1943, Antelme organized the BRICKLAYER circuit and established contacts with political circles and leading French civil servants with a view to supplying the allied expeditionary forces