Brooks Richards

Sir Francis Brooks Richards, , LdH, CdG (July 18, 1918 – September 13, 2002) was a director of operations for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War, and subsequently a British diplomat.

Early life He was born in Southampton on 18 July 1918, the son of an engineer, and educated at Stowe School and Magdalene College, Cambridge where he gained first-class honours in history in 1939.

Wartime activities In 1939 he was commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on the outbreak of war and volunteered for the Royal Navy, commanding a minesweeper and then a motor torpedo boat flotilla. and in 1941 he was taken on by SOE. He became second-in-command of the Helford Flotilla under Gerry Holdsworth.

He was deputy secretary to the Cabinet Office from 1978 to 1980, Security Adviser to the Northern Ireland Office in 1980–81 and finally president of CSM Parliamentary Consultants from 1984 until his retirement in 1996.

He helped set up The Gerry Holdsworth Special Forces Trust.

Death He died in Dorchester on 13 September 2002, aged 84.

Honours

Works Secret Flotillas: the Clandestine Sea Lines to France and French North Africa, HMSO, 1996. (revised edition) Vol 1 Secret Flotillas: Clandestine sea operations to Brittany, 1940–1944, Routledge, 2004. (revised edition) Vol 2 Secret Flotillas: Clandestine sea operations in the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Adriatic, 1940–1944, Routledge, 2004.