Brian Stonehouse | |
|---|---|
 Concentration Camp Self-portrait drawn with a Mirror - hence the signature | |
| Born | Brian Julian Warry Stonehouse (1918-08-29)29 August 1918 |
| Died | 2 December 1998(1998-12-02) (aged 80) |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Ipswich Art School |
| Occupations | |
| Part of a series on |
| Theosophy |
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Brian Julian Warry StonehouseMBE (29 August 1918 – 2 December 1998) was anEnglish painter andSpecial Operations Executive agent duringWorld War II. He was born inTorquay,England and had a brother, Dale. When his family moved toFrance, he went to school inWimereux,Pas-de-Calais. Back in Britain in 1932, he studied at theIpswich School of Art.
Stonehouse worked as an artist but joined theTerritorial Army after the outbreak ofWorld War II. He was later conscripted into theRoyal Artillery. In 1940, he worked as an interpreter for French troops inGlasgow who had been evacuated fromNorway. In the autumn of 1941, he was training for a commission in the 121 Officer Cadet Unit when theSpecial Operations Executive contacted him. Due to his fluency in French, SOE recruited him as a wireless operator with code name ofCelestin.
On 1 July 1942, Stonehouse parachuted into occupied France near the city ofTours in theLoire Valley. His radio got caught in a tree and he spent five nights in the forest before he could get it down. After finally retrieving it, the radio would not work properly and his contact told him to move toLyon. In September, accompanied by another agent,Blanche Charlet, he went to asafe house and made contact with the other SOE agents. By August he was in regular contact with the SOE station in London. However he became careless and transmitted too much and too long. As a result, German direction-finderstriangulated his position and theMilice arrested him on 24 October 1942 inChateau Hurlevent [fr] near Lyon. Charlet was also captured but later managed to escape to London. After the war Stonehouse discovered that Charlet had tried to commit suicide.[1]
InCastres prison, theGestapo placed Stonehouse in solitary confinement while subjecting him to frequent and brutal interrogations. In December he was transferred toFresnes prison inParis and further interrogated. Eventually he was shipped toGermany with other SOE prisoners, includingAlbert Guerisse,GC, thePat O'Leary Line organiser, and Guerisse's Australian W/T operator, Tom Groome. In October 1943, they arrived inSaarbrücken and in November was sent toMauthausen concentration camp. He spent a brief time in aLuftwaffe factory camp inVienna. In mid-1944, he was transferred to theNatzweiler-Struthof concentration camp inAlsace with Guerisse, a.k.a. Pat O'Leary. Stonehouse saved his own life by drawing sketches for the camp commandant, guards and their families.[2]
Throughout his time in five prisons, Stonehouse kept his personal vow of never painting or drawing an officer in uniform.[1] At the camp he witnessed the arrival of four female SOE agents,Andrée Borrel,Vera Leigh,Diana Rowden andSonya Olschanezky, who were all executed and disposed of in thecrematorium to make them disappear without a trace, under the programme of "Nacht und Nebel" ("Night and Fog"). After the war, Stonehouse and Guerisse were able to testify at theNaziwar crimes trials as to the women's fate. In 1985, Stonehouse painted a poignant watercolour of the four women from memory which now hangs in the Special Forces Club in London.[3]
From Natzweiler-Struthof, Stonehouse was sent to theDachau concentration camp from where he was liberated byU.S. troops on 29 April 1945. At home, he was awarded a militaryMBE. After the war, he remained in the military and was promoted to captain while working for theAllied Control Commission inFrankfurt, Germany where he assisted with the interrogation ofGestapo andSS members.[4]
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After 1946, Stonehouse continued his career as a fashion artist in theUnited States, painting for magazines includingVogue,Harper's Bazaar andElizabeth Arden.[5] In 1979, he returned to Britain and became a portrait painter. His clients included members of theRoyal family. One of his last portraits ofThe Queen Mother, who sat for him many times,[6] still hangs in the Special Forces Club in London. During his final years Stonehouse was an activeTheosophist living at the London branch of theUnited Lodge of Theosophists.
Whilst operating in France Stonehouse continued to sketch and draw people he came across.[2] He was on several occasions told not to carry his sketch books with him whilst 'on duty' (Interview with his surviving brother, May 2007[2]). Throughout his times in various prisons he continued to draw, at first secretly, but after discovery more openly.[2] His collections of drawings of fellow SOE prisoners, life in prison and prison guards along with other personal artefacts was handed over by the Stonehouse Family to theImperial War MuseumLondon in May 2007. These included, as well as the War Art, for example, postwar letters from surviving SOE operatives and letters and photographs from US PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower. This last collection included a signed photograph and note from Eisenhower upon meeting Stonehouse again shortly after the war ended. This stated that upon meeting each other again, Stonehouse asked Eisenhower if he knew why he had survived the war. The response from Eisenhower was, "I was going to ask you that".[7]Moyse's Hall MuseumBury St Edmunds discovered and facilitated the handing over of the collections following a VE Day (Victory in Europe Day)/VJ day (Victory over Japan Day) exhibition, to which the family had bought Brian's art and other personal artefacts.[2] A series of exhibitions of Stonehouse's fashion work was held at theAbbott and Holder gallery in London in 2014,[8][9][10] 2015, 2016 and 2017.[11]
