Private Papers of Captain E F J Chavasse

Collection of papers relating to his service with No 1 Special Force, the Special Operation Executive (SOE)'s mission in Italy, and his involvement in Operation Toast, the mission to sink the German liner AQUILA prior to its use to blockade the port of Genoa (April 1945), and his later service with Graves, Registration and Enquiries (Yugoslavia) and his work identifying the bodies of British servicemen, particularly in Serbia: including an ms account (7pp) by him of his duties during the preparations for Operation Toast plus ts papers, reports and directives (19pp) for the mission (April 1945), with bound copies of these papers and photographs (30pp); ts and ms graves registration report forms, reports, official papers and passes and other papers (110pp) concerning the work of G R & E (Yugoslavia) from 1946 to 1947, including copies of 2 ts reports (11pp) on SOE missions in southern Serbia (June 1943 - March 1944); and ms and ts correspondence and research notes (78pp) collated by him (April 1975 - November 1995), mostly relating to the identification of servicemen buried in Yugoslavia, but also commenting on Operation Toast. Also with the collection is a photocopy of an ms transcription made by Chavasse of a poem composed by his fellow Special Operations Mediterranean trainee, Captain Ron G Taylor, describing his feelings on making his first parachute jump at the Gioa RAF Base, Italy (July 1944): by August 1944, Taylor had parachuted into Northern Italy on an SOE mission (COOLANT).

Cataloguer PJB

Catalogue date 2006-01