Jean Albert Errard, French SAS and French Resistance:- An Interesting Collection of Photographs and Ephemera, including citations for Croix de Guerre, Medale Militaire etc., numerous hand written letters, an S.N.P.P. medallion in maroon leather cloth case, two F.N.F.L. cap talleys, a pocket compass, button plate, pewter sandwich box/flask, numerous photographs, SAS publications etc.; "Amicale des Anciens Parachutistes SAS et des Anciens Commandos de la France Libre" - a Longwy Pottery Charger, numbered 021 and inscribed "A Notre Camarade S.A.S. Jean Errard; a Lizio Art Pottery Dish, incised with a parachutist below St. Marcel (the Maquis of St. Marcel were resistance fighters in the war); also an MBE Breast Badge, in case of issue to his wife Josephine Errard, for her post-war work in the British Embassy in Paris, where she worked for the welfare of British nationals and their repatriation, together with the citation.

Footnote:- Jean Albert Errard, known as "Shell Head", due to the unusual shape of his head, was abandoned when he was born in 1916, and was taken in by a farming family in the Meuse region of Belgium/France, where he was treated like one of the family. He worked on the farm until he joined the sub-mariners at the age of 19. He was in Brest when the Germans invaded in June 1940 and went to England with the evacuating British Expeditionary Forces. He was one of the first to join the French Libre Forces and was sent to Dakar, Gabon and French Equatorial Africa, and took part in the Syria Campaign 1941. He returned to England in March 1942 and volunteered to serve with Captain Philippe Kieffer's group of Commandos. In August 1942 he was involved in Operation Jubilee (Raid on Dieppe) where heavy casualties were incurred, and he was one of the few to get back to the UK alive. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre with bronze star "To show evidence, on the 19th August 1942, of the highest qualities of courage and was a cog in the team which took part in three successive attempts at Bonneval after his convoy was attacked by German motorboats, and in spite of deadly artillery fire and automatic gun fire, made it to land". In November 1943, with the 4th Battalion Parachutists SAS, he parachuted into France and went on to work with the French Resistance with their sabotage programme. He was later dropped behind enemy lines before the D-Day landings, where he was responsible for "harassing" the enemy. He left the war zone of St. Marcel by escaping from the Germans with the help of the religious order of Malestroit who hid him in their convent.
During Jean's time in the war, he sustained injuries from a hand grenade and met his future wife Josephine Lovegrove, whilst recuperating.
Jean was a friend of General de Gaulle and the French spy Marie Clair.
After the war, Jean's wife Josephine, travelled around Afghanistan after being inspired by the book "Where the Four Worlds Meet - Hindu Kush, 1959" by Fosco Maraini, which is included in this lot.