Thomas Cox Waterman

Thomas Waterman always told his daughter, born in 1944, that she had been planned to arrive after the war. He had decided that he didn't want a pregnant wife to make him vulnerable in the event of a German invasion. He always maintained he would have been one of the first to have been shot if they had landed, but didn't explain why this was. He also talked about going away to be trained.

David Waterman (his son) did remember Thomas telling a story later on after the war regarding the wireless site, which was that he was in the St.Peter's Finger pub in Lytchett Minster when a man started talking loudly and being 'indiscreet' about things which he thought shouldn't be mentioned in company. He went to the wireless site (a short bicycle ride away) and reported the man, and said that by the time he got back to the pub the man was being taken away by Military Policemen (presumably the man was a soldier if it was the Military Police that took him away as opposed to regular Police).

After his wife Mary (nee Sutcliffe) died in 2005, a number of newspaper cuttings about the British Maquis came to light. This suggests that he was a member of Auxiliary Units, but he doesn't appear on the comprehensive lists for the Patrols. It therefore seems likely that he was a member of the Special Duties Branch. His wife also indicated that his physique was not suitable for crawling about unnoticed! (This is perhaps unfair as when married in 1936 the report indicated that he was a County Rugby player and also played for Bournemouth Sports First XV a very competitive side at the time - though it was as a front row).