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5 unusual facts about Edward Spears


Georges Mandel

On 16 June 1940 in Bordeaux, the British general Edward Spears, Churchill's military liaison officer, offered Mandel the chance to leave on his plane, together with Charles de Gaulle.

Holy Deadlock

During a sailing holiday around Brittany with Sir Edward Spears and his wife Mary Borden in late 1932, he filled a notebook with the outline of what was to become Holy Deadlock.

Joseph Vuillemin

Commenting to General Edward Spears on 30 May 1940, the British Air Attaché in Paris, Air Commodore Douglas Colyer, criticised certain senior French officers saying that, while they had been very brave pilots in the last war, they were not sufficiently educated to command important formations now.

Operation Royal Marine

However, Sir Edward Spears claimed that he had originally proposed the idea to Churchill when they visited eastern France in August 1939, but by the time the operation was put into practice Churchill believed the idea was his.

Rue Spears

Rue Spears is a street in Beirut, Lebanon that was named after Lebanese General Edward Spears who in 1940 liaised with General Charles de Gaulle and his Free French movement to liberate the Levant.


Max Wyndham, 2nd Baron Egremont

Egremont studied modern history at Oxford University and has written books about Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Arthur Balfour and Sir Edward Spears, as well as a historical travelogue of East Prussia.


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