Resistance leader dies in Paris

Paris - Col Pierre Fourcaud, who helped set up the Free French secret services in London during the second World War and remained…

Paris - Col Pierre Fourcaud, who helped set up the Free French secret services in London during the second World War and remained a spy-master through part of the Cold War, has died in Paris, aged 100, his family said yesterday.

Col Fourcaud, born in St Petersburg, was wounded three times during the first World War and was awarded a battlefield commission to become an officer. He rallied behind Gen de Gaulle's Free French movement in London shortly after its creation in June 1940, and became one of just over 1,000 holders of the coveted Cross of the Liberation awarded personally by de Gaulle.