Colin Gubbins Major - General Sir Colin McVean Gubbins KCMG , DSO , MC ( 2 July 1896 – 11 February 1976 ) was the prime mover of the Special Operations Executive ( SOE ) in World War II . Gubbins was also responsible for setting up the secret Auxiliary Units , a civilian force to operate behind the German lines if the United Kingdom was invaded during Operation Sea Lion , Germany ' s planned invasion . Early life . Gubbins was born in Tokyo on 2 July 1896 , the younger son and third child of John Harington Gubbins ( 1852 – 1929 ) , Oriental Secretary at the British Legation . He was educated at Cheltenham College and at the Royal Military Academy , Woolwich where he graduated 56th out of 70 cadets . Military service . World War I . Gubbins was commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery in 1914 . On the outbreak of war he was visiting the German city of Heidelberg in order to improve his German language skills and had to make a perilous journey back to Britain via Belgium , arriving in Dover the day before Britain entered the conflict . Gubbins served as a battery officer on the Western Front , initially serving with the 126th Battery as part of the British Army ' s 3rd Corps . He first saw action on 22 May 1915 in the Second Battle of Ypres and on 9 June was promoted to 1st Lieutenant . In July 1916 he participated in the Battle of the Somme and received the Military Cross for rescuing wounded men under fire . On 7 October he was wounded in the neck by a gunshot but fully recovered . In the spring of 1917 Gubbins participated in the Battle of Arras and in the winter suffered the effects of mustard gas . In early 1918 Gubbins was promoted to Captain and took part in the Battle of St Quentin . Shortly afterwards he was evacuated from the front with a case of trench fever on 17 April 1918 . Interwar period . In 1919 he joined the staff of General Sir Edmund Ironside in the North Russia Campaign serving as his ADC in Murmansk from 13 April to 27 September 1919 . He would later be awarded the Order of St Stanislav for his service . On 2 December 1919 Gubbins was posted to the 47th Battery of the 5th Division in Kildare during the Anglo - Irish War . He served as an intelligence officer and in 1920 attended a 3 day course in Guerilla Warfare organized by the HQ 5th Division . Gubbins characterised his service in the conflict as " being shot at from behind hedges by men in trilbys and mackintoshes and not allowed to shoot back " Promoted to Brigade Major he provided 18 - pounder artillery pieces to the Irish Free State Army for the attack on the rebel held Dublin Four Courts on 28 June 1922 . Ten days later he reluctantly provided a gun carriage and six black horses for the funeral of ex - IRA leader Michael Collins who had been assassinated by his former comrades . Eventually he was posted back to England in October 1922 . His experiences in the Russian Civil War and his subsequent experience during the Anglo - Irish War stimulated his lifelong interest in irregular warfare . One of the lessons drawn from the Anglo - Irish War was the importance of captured enemy documents which had provided the security forces with a wealth of invaluable intelligence on the IRA Upon later establishing SOE one of the key security features introduced was " Commit as little as possible to writing . Memorise if you can . If you must carry documents , select what you must carry . Burn all secret waste and carbons " . After a period with signals intelligence at GHQ India , Gubbins graduated from the Staff College at Quetta in 1928 , and in 1931 was appointed GSO3 in the Russian section of the War Office . Having been promoted to Brevet Major , in 1935 he joined MT1 , the policy making branch of the military training directorate . In October 1938 , in the aftermath of the Munich Agreement , he was sent to the Sudetenland as a military member of the International Commission . Promoted to Brevet Lieutenant - Colonel , he joined GS ( R ) — later to become MI ( R ) — in April 1939 , where he prepared training manuals on irregular warfare , which were later translated and dropped into occupied Europe . He also made a visit to Warsaw to discuss sabotage and subversion with the Polish General Staff . World War II . When British forces were mobilized in August 1939 , Gubbins was appointed Chief of Staff to the military mission to Poland led by Adrian Carton de Wiart . He was among the first people to report on the effectiveness of the German Panzer tactics . In October 1939 , following his return to Britain , Gubbins was sent to Paris as the head of a military mission to the Czech and Polish forces under French command . Gubbins was summoned from France in March 1940 to raise the " Independent Companies " — forerunners of the British Commandos — which he later commanded in the Norwegian Campaign ( 9 April – 10 June 1940 ) . Although criticized in some quarters for having asked too much of untried troops , he showed himself to be a bold and resourceful commander , and was awarded the DSO . Back in Britain , he was directed by General Headquarters Home Forces to form the Auxiliary Units , a civilian force to operate behind German lines if Britain were invaded . In November 1940 Gubbins became acting Brigadier and , at the request of Hugh Dalton , minister of Economic Warfare , was seconded to the Special Operations Executive ( SOE ) , which had recently been established to " coordinate all action by way of sabotage and subversion against the enemy overseas " . Besides maintaining his existing connections with the Poles and Czechs , Gubbins was given three tasks : to set up training facilities ; to devise operating procedures acceptable to the Admiralty and Air Ministry ; and to establish close working relations with the Joint Planning Staff . Despite many frustrations and disappointments , mainly due to shortage of aircraft , he persevered with training organizers and dispatching them into the field . The first liaison flight to Poland took place in February 1941 , and during 1942 and 1943 European resistance movements aided by SOE scored notable successes , including a raid on a heavy water production plant in Norway . In September 1943 GHQ Middle East , the Foreign Office , and the Joint Intelligence Committee mounted an attack on SOE ' s autonomy . Despite having the firm support of the Minister , Roundell Palmer , 3rd Earl of Selborne , the resulting modus vivendi placed SOE ' s field operations under the direction of theatre commanders . Sir Charles Hambro , the executive head of SOE , resigned in protest . Gubbins , by now an acting Brigadier - General , was appointed as his replacement . SOE ' s position nevertheless remained precarious , and in January 1944 there was a further attempt to dismantle SOE , following the revelation that SOE ' s operations in the Netherlands had been penetrated by Nazi intelligence . As head of SOE , Gubbins co - ordinated the activities of resistance movements worldwide . Gubbins ' role involved consultation at the highest level with the Foreign Office , the Chiefs of Staff , representatives of the resistance organizations , governments - in - exile , and other Allied agencies including particularly the US Office of Strategic Services ( OSS ) . It turned out that the organized resistance was more effective than Whitehall had expected ; in northwest Europe , where SOE ' s activities were under Gubbins ' s personal control , General Dwight D . Eisenhower later estimated that the contribution of the French Resistance alone had been worth six division s . Later life . When SOE was shut down in 1946 the War Office could offer Gubbins no suitable position , and when he retired from the army he became the managing director of a carpet and textile manufacturer . He remained in touch with people in many of the countries he had helped to liberate , and was invited by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands to join the Bilderberg group . He was also a supporter of the Special Forces Club , which he had co - founded . Personal life . Gubbins ' s first marriage was to Norah Creina ( b . 1894 ) on 22 October 1919 . The couple had two sons , the elder of whom was killed at Anzio in 1944 . The couple were divorced in 1944 and on 25 September 1950 he married the Norwegian - born Anna Elise Tradin , née Jensen ( b . 1914 , d . 2007 ) . A shooter and fisherman , Gubbins spent his last years at his home in the Hebrides , on the Isle of Harris . He was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of the islands area of the Western Isles in 1976 . Gubbins died at Stornoway in the Hebrides on 11 February 1976 . Testimonials . His star cryptographer at SOE was Leo Marks , whose book " Between Silk and Cyanide " ( 1998 ) contains a detailed portrait of Gubbins and his work as Marks knew it . At one point ( p . 222 ) , Marks describes Gubbins : In the book " Virtual History " ( 1997 ) , Andrew Roberts and Niall Ferguson call Gubbins " one of the war ' s unsung heroes . "