Maurice Buckmaster was born in 1910. He was educated at Eton until his father was declared bankrupt. After leaving school he moved to France where he worked as a reporter for Le Martin. Later he was a banker before becoming a senior manager with the Ford Motor Company.
On the outbreak of the Second World War Buckmaster returned to England and joined the British Army. He served with the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940 until forced to retreat to Dunkirk during Germany's Western Offensive and arrived back in England in June, 1940.
Buckmaster was transferred to the French Section of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in March 1941. Placed in charge of the SOE in September he was given the task of building an organization that would carry out acts of sabotage, gather information on the enemy and providing money and equipment to the French Resistance. His deputy was Major Nicholas Bodington.
After the war Buckmaster wrote about his wartime experiences in two book, Special Employed: The Story of British Aid to French Patriots of the Resistance (1952) and They Fought Alone: The Story of British Aid to British Agents in France (1958).
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