22 Facts About Colin Gubbins

Colin Gubbins was born in Japan on 2 July 1896, the younger son and third child of John Harington Colin Gubbins, Oriental Secretary at the British Legation.

Colin Gubbins was educated at Cheltenham College and at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich where he graduated 56th out of 70 cadets.

Colin Gubbins was commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery in 1914.

Colin Gubbins first saw action on 22 May 1915 in the Second Battle of Ypres and on 9 June was promoted to lieutenant.

In early 1918 Colin Gubbins was promoted to captain and took part in the Battle of St Quentin.

On 2 December 1919 Colin Gubbins was posted to the 47th Battery of the 5th Division in Kildare during the Irish War of Independence.

Colin Gubbins served as a military intelligence officer and in 1920 attended a three-day course in guerrilla warfare organized by the HQ 5th Division.

Colin 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".

Colin Gubbins made a visit to Warsaw to discuss sabotage and subversion with the Polish General Staff.

When British forces were mobilized in August 1939, Colin Gubbins was appointed Chief of Staff to the military mission to Poland led by Adrian Carton de Wiart.

In October 1939, following his return to Britain, Colin Gubbins was sent to Paris as the head of a military mission to the Czech and Polish forces under French command.

Colin Gubbins was summoned from France in March 1940 to raise the Independent Companies, forerunners of the British Commandos, which he later commanded in several actions in Nordland during the Norwegian campaign.

Colin Gubbins was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his service in the campaign.

In November 1940 Colin Gubbins became acting Brigadier and, at the request of Hugh Dalton, the Minister of Economic Warfare, was seconded to the Special Operations Executive, 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, Colin 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.

Colin Gubbins was responsible for establishing the so-called Shetland Bus, a regular link between the Shetland Islands and Norway, which, by the spring of 1942, had infiltrated almost 100 saboteurs and 150 tons of explosive into the country.

Colin 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.

Colin Gubbins 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.

Colin Gubbins was a supporter of the Special Forces Club, which he had co-founded.

Colin Gubbins's niece was the journalist and writer Una-Mary Parker.

Colin Gubbins was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of the islands area of the Western Isles in 1976.

Colin Gubbins died at Stornoway in the Hebrides on 11 February 1976.