Alfred Gardyne de Chastelain Alfred George Gardyne de Chastelain , DSO , OBE ( 1906 – 1974 ) was a British businessman , soldier , and secret agent , noted for his actions during World War II . He was the father of Canadian General John de Chastelain . Early life and stay in Romania . Born in London , England , in February 1906 , of Anglo - Scottish parents and of Huguenot background , he was educated in Scotland and the University of London , from which he received a First Class degree in Engineering . On graduation , he moved to Romania and worked for Unirea ( a British Petroleum branch ) in Bucharest , rising to a managerial position towards the end of the 1930s . While in Bucharest , he married Marion Elizabeth Walsh , the daughter of Jack Walsh , an American accountant with Standard Oil of New Jersey in Romania . Wartime activities with the SOE . On the outbreak of war with Nazi Germany , de Chastelain was commissioned into the Artists ' Rifles and became a member of Special Operations Executive ( SOE ) , with which organisation he conducted sabotage operations in the Balkans and served in the North African campaign . In late 1943 , with the rank of Lieutenant - Colonel , he led a team of two other SOE members ( Ivor Porter and Silviu Meţianu ) by parachute into Romania ( Operation Autonomous ) , to test the possibility of the country ' s surrender to the Allies as the Axis was losing battles on the Eastern Front ( " see Romania during World War II " ) . Captured by the Romanian Gendarmerie soon after their landing near Plosca , Teleorman County , he and his team were taken into custody as prisoners of war and held in a Bucharest apartment . They were all released in August 1944 , when " Conducător " Ion Antonescu was overthrown and King Michael I assumed full powers ( " see King Michael Coup " ) . Decorated , de Chastelain was demobilised after the war , joining a unit of the Special Air Service in the Territorial Army . Life in the post - war era . After the start of the Cold War , Soviet authorities alleged that he was keeping contacts with Iuliu Maniu , the leader of the National Peasants ' Party ; the latter had opposed both Antonescu ' s regime and the Soviet occupation of Romania . During Maniu ' s trial for treason ( 1947 ) , the Minister of the Interior , Teohari Georgescu , was handed a report which indicated Maniu ' s alleged contacts with de Chastelain as proof that the politician was a British spy . Alongside a group of partners , de Chastelain started Griffin Enterprises ( 1945 ) , a business centered in London and Kent , dealing in film processing , import and exports and other activities . In 1954 , he left that business to accept a post as Vice - President of the Canadian branch of an American oilwell drilling and services company , H . J . Eastman , in Calgary , Alberta . Living for several years in Canada and then in Australia , he returned to Canada in the early 1970s and died in Calgary at the age of 68 . A book giving an account of the SOE Operation in Romania was written by one member of the team , Ivor Porter , later a British Ambassador ( " Operation Autonomous : With SOE in Wartime Rumania " , Chatto and Windus , 1989 ) . He was a founding member of the Special Forces Club in Knightsbridge , and of the Food and Wine Society in Calgary .