IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0099 KCLMA Dodson
Held at: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London
Title: DODSON, Sir Derek Sherborne Lindsell (1920-2003)
Date(s): 1935-1986
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 1 box or 0.01m3
Name of creator(s): Dodson | Sir | Derek Sherborne Lindsell | 1920-2003 | Knight | diplomat | Major
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Born 20 Jan 1920; educated at Flete House, Westgate-on-Sea, 1929-c 1933; Stowe School, 1934-c 1936; Royal Military College, Sandhurst, 1938-c 1939; 2 Lt, Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1st Battalion, India, 1939-1940; Special Operations Executive (SOE), 1941-1945; Headquarters, Cairo, 1942; SOE missions to Greece, 1943-1945; led attack on Turin with Italian partisans, 26 Apr 1945; organised partisan operations on Chivasso and Carmagnola, Italy; awarded MC, 1945; Military Assistant to the British member of the Allied Control Commission in Bulgaria, 1945-c 1946; General Staff Officer Grade 3, War Office, 1946-1947; entered the Foreign Service, Jan 1948; Vice-Consul, and Acting Consul-General, Salonika, Greece 1949-1950; Second and subsequently (Oct) First Secretary, British Embassy, Madrid, 1951; Personnel Department, Foreign Office, 1953; Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, 1955; First Secretary and Head of Chancery, Prague, Nov 1958; acting Charge d'affaires, Prague, 1959-1962; Consul in Elisabethville, Katanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1962; awarded CMG, 1963; Foreign Office Central Department, 1963-1966; Counsellor and Deputy Ambassador, Greece, 1966-1969; Ambassador to Hungary 1970-1973; Ambassador to Brazil, Sep 1973-1977; appointed KCMG and awarded the Brazilian order of the Southern Cross, 1975; British ambassador in Ankara, Turkey, 1977-1980; retired 1980; Special Representative of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, 1981-1995; British member of the board of the Benguela Railway Company, 1984-1992; died 22 Nov 2003.
Descriptions of Greek resistance groups (Greek: andartes) related to this collection:
AAI: The National Liberation Front (Greek: Ethniko Apeleftherotiko Metopo) led by Georges Siados was a Communist group affiliated with the KKE - the Communist Party of Greece (Greek: Kommounistiko Komma Elladas).
The military arm of EAM was ELAS, The National People's Liberation Army, (Greek: Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos), led by Ares Velouchiotis (real name Athanasios (Thanasis) Klaras).
EDES: The National Republican Greek League (Greek: Ethnikos Demokratikos Ellenikos Syndesmos), was an anti-Communist, Republican group, led by political leader Nikolaos Plasteras and military leader Gen Napoleon Zervas.
EKKA: National and Social Liberation (Greek: Ethnike kai Koinonike Apeleftherosis) led by Demetrios Psarros was a liberal, anti-Communist, Republican group.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers of Sir Derek Dodson, 1935-1986, relating to his service in Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Greece and Italy, comprising papers including message books, notes, reports and correspondence related to service in the Allied Military Mission to Greece, Sep 1943-Mar 1945; messages, notes, and diary relating to service with partisans in Italy, Apr-May 1945; photographs of Dodson; maps of Greece, Italy and France; report by the Salonika Bureau, 'The Macedonian Autonomy Movement in North West Greece: its setting and recent histor', Oct 1945.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English. Some Greek and French.
System of arrangement:
Original order.
Conditions governing access:
Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of a letter of introduction.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archive Services.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Detailed catalogue available online and in hard copy in the reading room.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Deposited in the Centre by the family, 15 Feb 2005.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Papers relating to Special Operations Executive (SOE) operations in Greece and the Balkans, 1942-1945, and the Allied Military Mission to the Greek guerrillas in German occupied Greece, 1942-1945, can be found in the papers of Col Hon Christopher Montague Woodhouse (Ref: Woodhouse); Brig Edmund Charles Wolf Myers (Ref: Myers); Brig Godfrey Pennington Hobbs (Ref: Hobbs); Lt Col Count Julian A Dobrski (Ref: Dobrski); Maj Ronald R Prentice and Capt H Arthur Wickstead (Ref: Prentice/Wickstead); Maj Philip Frederick Nind (Ref: Nind); Capt Patrick Hutchinson Evans (Ref: Evans) and Capt Albert Henry Lingen (Ref: Lingen).
The National Archives hold a substantial collection of material relating to SOE operations, most notably Political Warfare Executive correspondence (Ref: FO 898/25-28); papers relating to SOE activities, Middle East, Cairo, 1940-42 (Ref: FO 898/113-114); Quarterly Reports of Special Operations Executive, Oct 1943-Dec 1945 (Ref: PREM 3/408/1); Confidential Papers of Col William J Donovan, 1940-41 (Ref: PREM 4/25/5); and, Special Operations Executive: Balkan Files (Ref: HS 5).
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Entry Compiled by Sarah Drewery.
Date(s) of descriptions: Oct 2008