John Jenner Marchant

28 Aug 1939 Territorial Army Corporal Queen Victoria Rifles 2nd Battalion.

7 Dec 1939 Cadet at 168 Officer Cadet Training Unit.

20 April 1940 Commissioned in Wiltshire Regiment.

John Marchant was the commander of the Scout Section for the New Forest in West Hampshire from 3 Nov 1940 to October 1943. He had been commissioned at 20 years of age into the Wiltshire Regiment in April 1940 and spent the early part of the war training recruits at the depot in Devizes, Wiltshire. Rather bored, he jumped at the offer from his CO to be posted to alternate duties and found himself at Burley, with a unit of 15 men from the Wiltshire regiment.

Lieutenant Marchant was sent to Coleshill to be trained in the use of explosives, grenades, the Sten gun and other weapons. This was likely one of the Scout Section Officer courses.

Arreton Patrol member Stan Williams recalled him delivering training on the Isle of Wight on one occasion.

In Nov 1943 he joined SOE. In Jan 1944 Lieutenant Marchant was transferred to Milton Hall near Peterborough as an instructor for Jedburgh - SOE. He attributed this to his time in Auxiliary Units, and the involvement of Gubbins, who was running SOE, but brought in many officers from Auxiliary Units. Promoted to Acting then Temporary Captain. His reports are mainly good one saying "He is a keen and capable officer and should develop into a good instructor" however another says "This officer is a colourless individual and I think possibly he is also rather weak. He has a good knowledge of all subjects and lectures well. He has quite a good grip on a class but is rather worried by hecklers allowing himself to be taken off the point".

22 March 1944 he managed to get himself onto more active service as a member of Jedburgh. Code named "Somerset" he joined Team “Felix” and dropped into Brittany 9 July 1944. Soon they coordinated 30 resistance groups, with around 3000 fighters, and were able to attack a column of 600 German paratroopers on two separate occasions, significantly delaying their progress. At a later date they captured two field guns and shelled the local garrison! He return to the UK in Sept 1944.

3 Nov 1944 he sailed for India as part of Force 136. Jan 22 1945 he was parachuted to Burma taking part in Operation "Future" with Team "Bison” working with Karen fighters known as Levies, returning to Calcutta 3 April 1945. Parachuting again into Burma 1 May 1945 on Operation "Character" with Team "Otter", returning to Calcutta 20 Oct 1945.

By the end of the war he had the Croix de Guerre and two mentions in despatches. His service record records him as 5 foot 7 inches with fair hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion.

Marchant was interviewed for The Imperial War Museum in 1997.