• Operation Postmaster (1942)
• Special Operations Executive (SOE)

Date of birth:

May 23rd, 1912

Service number:

185338

Nationality:

British

Educated at King's College School, Wimbledon.

During the Second World War, Major Prout served with distinction in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a covert British organisation tasked with sabotage, subversion, and support to resistance movements across occupied Europe and beyond. His service record, preserved through a unique collection of wartime papers and personal correspondence, offers a vivid portrait of clandestine operations, personal sacrifice, and enduring camaraderie.

Commissioned into the British Army, he was later seconded to SOE, where he became involved in high-risk missions including Operation Postmaster and Operation Aquatint— the latter a Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF) assault on the French coast in September 1942.

His wartime papers include an Officer’s Record of Service, a pass for the Inter Services Research Bureau (July 1943), and memorabilia from SOE training schools—such as a dance programme from Station 61 (December 1944) and a history of Anderson Manor, Dorset, used as STS 62.

Among the correspondence are letters from Anders Lassen VC, Major Geoffrey Appleyard (killed in 1943), and Jan Hellings.

After returning from Africa, where he had served with the SSRF, he was nursed by Margaret Ferguson, a Captain in the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (Reserve). Her autograph album, kept during her postings at Shaftesbury, Watford, and Colchester Military Hospitals (1941–1944), includes verses, drawings, and photographs from colleagues and patients—among them her future husband. The album also features signatures from soldiers of Major General Wingate’s Chindit force and the cricket commentator Captain Brian Johnston.

Post-war, he remained connected to the special forces community, as evidenced by his 1947 membership card for the Special Forces Club. His archive includes 15 wartime photographs, a signed menu from June 1945, and letters from his mother dated December 1945 and June 1946, offering glimpses into the emotional aftermath of service.

1940: Corporal RASC
1941: Sergeant, 7 Commando (B Troop)
22 April 1941: Lieutenant (emergency commission)

1941-1942: Maid Honor Force SOE (Quartermaster)
1942: Small Scale Raiding Force

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• - Private Papers of Major L E Prout
  - HS 9/1215/1

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