George Reginald Starr
George Reginald Starr (April 1904 - 1980), was one of two sons of Alfred Demarest Starr (an American) and Ethel Renshaw (English). He was a grandson of William Robert Renshaw.He was educated at Ardingly School in Sussex, and at the age of 16 undertook a seven-year apprenticeship as a coal-miner in Shropshire.
After studying mining engineering at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London he joined the Glasgow firm of Mavor and Coulson Ltd, manufacturers of mining equipment.
In 1940 he was working in Liège , Belgium when the German invasion began and escaped back to England with British forces via Dunkirk. He joined the army and was subsequently recruited into the Special Operations Executive.
In November 1942, shortly before German forces began their occupation of the Vichy Republic, he arrived secretly by boat on the Mediterranean coast of France.
Based in Castelnau, posing as a retired Belgian mining engineer, he successfully organised a resistance network in the south-west corner of France, between Toulouse, Bordeaux and the Pyrenees (designated by S.O.E as the 'Wheelwright Sector').
In 1944 he created the Armagnac Battalion in Toulouse.
He was decorated with the Distinguished Service Order, the Military Cross, and the Croix de Guerre Avec Palme. He was also made an officer of the Légion d'honneur. The United States Government awarded him the Medal of Freedom with Silver Bar. He finished the war with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
After the war he was sent to Essen in the Ruhr district to direct the re-opening of German coal mines.
He later returned to Mavor & Coulson as managing director before retiring to live in France. He died in hospital at Chantilly in 1980.
He had a brother, John Renshaw Starr, who was also a member of S.O.E.
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