Gentleman Jim: The Wartime Story of a Founder of the SAS and Special Services

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Boats fascinated him and, aged 10, he built his first craft, a punt made out of a bacon box with toffee tins as outriggers. In fact I finished it at three o’clock in the morning and was sorry that there wasn’t any more pages.

Kershaw struggled up with two others carrying an old piano which they hoisted up into the three-tonner. Never one to employ or permit unnecessary violence, he rescued a captured German motorcycle dispatch rider from the French Maquis (resistance). When war broke out Blakeney had been working at the docks as a ‘lumper’ or general labourer at the busy docks. Jim Almonds, a sergeant in the Guards Commandos, sailed for the Middle East as part of ‘Layforce’ in January 1941 with David Stirling and others destined to become SAS ‘L’ Detachment ‘originals’.Yet, later, as the US forces advanced, Almonds decided to let Fritz live, choosing his moment to allow him to slip away back to the German lines so that he would not be shot by the American forces or accused of fraternisation with the enemy by his own side. There was about it all, Almonds said later, an air of the faintly comical: "not a million miles away from 'Allo 'Allo". A whole crowd of other men were due to arrive soon from the old Troop of their CO (Commanding Officer) David Stirling. This remarkable story of Jim Almonds (Gentleman Jim) is set in wartime England, the western desert, Italy and France, and recounts his formative role in the birth of the SAS.

He committed to memory the location, extent and density of the field so that he could warn the advancing Allies.The desert night air was still crisp and they kept moving, even when the ball was momentarily not in play.

Riley and Almonds got hold of a three-man tent and a double; they were to share with Ernie Bond, while Lilley and Blakeney shared another. By some miracle, my father had survived the Second World War unscathed, despite coming close to death nine times in my first book – the prequel to this one: ‘Gentleman Jim: The Wartime Story of a Founder of the SAS and Special Forces’. While the team concept remained important, each one of them had to develop a sense of their own independence and personal effectiveness.Leaving three soldiers with their mules and provisions, the remaining twelve Field Force men ran the last 10 miles to their target.

Mr Almonds was moved to another camp where he was spent seven months in solitary confinement in a room about the size of a toilet. As number two in the Eritrea Police Field Force, he led a bandit-chasing outfit in a race against the clock to catch wanted rebels in time for Britain to bring in a 1952 UN resolution to join Ethiopia and Eritrea under the Ethiopian Crown. British justice was swift yet he remained humane, respecting the local officers with whom he served and honouring their customs.

During one mission behind enemy lines in French-occupied France – an episode that Almonds dubbed – “the French picnic” – the SAS wreaked havoc blowing up railway lines, bridges and ammunition lines in the summer of 1944. He had a sharp, sensitive face with the regulation neat moustache and an unconscious slight air of superiority. Until being admitted to hospital, he had lived in the house in the Lincolnshire village of Stixwould in which he was born. The son of a smallholder, John Edward Almonds was born in Stixwould, Lincolnshire, on 6 August 1914. Lord Ashcroft tells the story of SAS original Jim Almonds ahead of remembrance Sunday Ahead of Remembrance Sunday, philanthropist and historian Lord Ashcroft reveals the incredible story of SAS original Jim Almonds, whose fearsome reputation was combined with immense humanity and compassion.