James Langley

Lieutenant-Colonel James Maydon Langley (12 March 1916 – 10 April 1983) was an officer in the British Army, who served during World War II. Wounded and captured at the battle of Dunkirk in mid-1940, he later returned to Britain and served in MI9.

Biography Langley was born in Wolverhampton, the son of Francis Oswald Langley (1884–1947), a stipendiary magistrate, recorder and chancellor. He was educated at Uppingham School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Having served as a cadet under officer in the Uppingham School Contingent of the Junior Division of the Officers' Training Corps, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards (Supplementary Reserve) on 4 July 1936, and promoted to lieutenant on 4 July 1939.

Langley was mobilised on 24 August 1939 to serve in the 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards, part of the 1st Guards Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, then commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Lionel Bootle-Wilbraham, in the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).

On his return to England he was recruited by Claude Dansey into the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) to serve as liaison officer between MI6 and MI9, where most of his work involved the support of escape and evasion lines in north-west Europe. MI9's role was to assist and finance escape and evasion lines in German occupied Europe, setting up reception centres, collating intelligence and organising the clandestine return of airmen and soldiers to the UK. The escape lines enabled about 7,000 downed airmen and stranded soldiers to escape occupied Europe. These operations extended to liberated POWs as their camps were overrun. It was also involved setting up "safe areas" such as Operation Marathon, behind enemy lines in which downed airmen could congregate until liberated, rather than risk breaking through the front line. The organisation was also involved in "Operation Pegasus" at Arnhem. He was promoted to captain (war substantive) on 30 October 1943, and to major on 14 April 1944, and then to acting lieutenant-colonel on 14 January 1944. He was promoted to major in the Reserves on 1 January 1949, eventually relinquishing his commission, having reached the age limit, on 12 March 1966, and was granted the honorary rank of lieutenant-colonel.

Post-war he worked for Fisons until 1967, then ran a bookshop in Suffolk with his wife, the former Peggy van Lier (1915–2000), a member of the Belgian "Comet line", whom he had married in 1944. They had four sons and a daughter.

Langley retired in 1976, and died in 1983.

Awards On 20 December 1940 Langley was awarded the Military Cross "in recognition of gallant conduct in action with the enemy" in France, and on 29 April 1941 was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) "in recognition of distinguished services in the field". On 2 August 1945 Langley received a mention in dispatches "in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in North West Europe".

Publications

, with M. R. D. Foot.