The mysterious death of SOE agent Christopher Lord.

Christopher Lord.

Christopher James Lord was born in Birmingham, England on 27 October 1900. He was recruited by SOE in 1942 whilst working for the Guaranty Trust Company of New York after previously working for American Express in Paris and his wife was serving as a lieutenant with the Free French based in London.

It is known Lord arrived in France on 15 April 1943 with instructions to organise the courier network between Belgium, France and Britain and three days after his arrival Lord recruited two sub-agents named Albert Lefevre and Jean Chudeau. Lord is though to have met his two new recruits on 14 May 1943 at the Café de la Gare in Carmaux after which he was not heard of again.

After the war his wife published his photograph in a Carmaux newspaper and asked for information about his disappearance but there were no replies. In March 1946 she was informed that in 1943 an unidentified body had been found in a well in a small village near Carmaux that had been buried locally. The police were aware the unidentified man had been shot four times with a Colt revolver that was dumped with the body in the well, they were convinced he was not killed by the Germans and at the request of his wife the body was exhumed and later identified as Christopher Lord.

Based on the testimony of the local mayor which was circumstantial, the police worked on the theory that Christopher Lord was murdered by his two recruits, Albert Lefevre and Jean Chudeau, who were never found. Lord is also known to have been carrying a substantial amount of money but when his body was recovered he only had a 100 Franc bank note in his pocket and police suspected the motive for his murder was money, but who murdered Christopher Lord and why has not been proved.

Christopher Lord was eventually buried at Laissac Cemetery, Aveyron, France (CWGC).