Donald Caskie

Donald Currie Caskie, OBE, DD (22 May 1902 – 27 December 1983) was a minister in the Church of Scotland, best known for his work in France during World War II. He was a member of the Pat O'Leary escape line which helped more than 600 Allied sailors, soldiers and airmen to escape from Occupied France (mainly through Spain).^[1][2]

The 'Fasti' – the record of all Church of Scotland ministers since the Reformation – simply mentions that he was "engaged in church and patriotic duties in France, 1939–1945". In his autobiography The Tartan Pimpernel he states that 'he had been called to Paris in 1935.'

The son of a crofter, he was born in Bowmore on Islay in 1902. He was educated at Bowmore School and then Dunoon Grammar School before studying arts and divinity at the University of Edinburgh. His first charge was at Gretna.^[3] A 2001 Gaelic-language documentary aired on BBC2 stated that Caskie was a homosexual, with the documentarian Angus Peter Campbell saying that Caskie lived life as a man who was "straight at home [and] gay abroad".^[4]

In 1938^[5], Caskie became the minister of the Scots Kirk (church) in Paris. He preached against Nazi Germany and found it expedient to flee Paris on 11 June 1940 as the conquering German army approached the city. He was one of millions who fled the Nazi invasion. Caskie ended up in Marseilles along with many stranded British soldiers after the British withdrew their army from France in the Dunkirk Evacuation. On 22 June France surrendered to Germany, but the surrender agreement left Marseilles and southern France (Vichy France) unoccupied by the Germans. Arthur Dean, the American Consul in Marseilles (The U.S. was still a neutral in the conflict), offered Caskie the job of running the British Seaman's Mission located in a large, run-down building at 46 Rue de Forbin. On 16 July Caskie and three stranded British sailors began cleaning up the building. Mindful that the Vichy government intended to intern the estimated 5,000 British soldiers stranded in southern France and that aid to soldiers would be illegal, he posted a sign on the door of the Mission: "Now open to British civilians and seamen ONLY." His intention, however, was to help the stranded soldiers as well as other British citizens in Marseilles. He began hiding soldiers in the basement of the Seaman's Mission. Up to 100 men slept in the Mission. Security precautions were elementary. Three knocks on the door and the password "Donald Duck" gained entrance.^[6][7]

Caskie fed, housed, and dressed soldiers -- replacing their uniforms with civilian clothing and claiming to the authorities that they were civilians. Although suspicious of Caskie's Mission and occasionally raiding it, the Vichy police allowed it to continue to operate but they collected most British soldiers in Marseilles and interned them at Fort Saint-Jean. The interned soldiers were allowed to leave the fort on parole in the evenings. The British government, through the American Consulate, provided a financial stipend to the interned soldiers and also to Caskie at the Mission for his help to the "civilians" he housed and fed. ^[8] Among the people who supported Caskie with funds and also housed soldiers were Louis Nouveau, a French businessman, and his wife Renée and Georges Rodocanachi, a medical doctor of Greek origin, and his wife Fanny, plus a number of other British women living in Marseilles.^[9]

Although conditions for stranded soldiers in Marseilles were adequate, the soldiers wanted to escape France and return to Great Britain. Among the soldiers Caskie met were James Langley, who would escape France, return to Britain, and become the co-leader, with Airey Neave (another escapee), of MI9, created to help stranded soldiers and airmen escape occupied France. Another was Ian Garrow, Scottish as was Caskie, who would create what became known as the Pat O'Leary Escape Line.^[10] The Pat Line, with help from Caskie, would help more than 600 British soldiers and airmen escape France.^[2]

Caskie came under the suspicion of the Vichy France and German authorities, and a fellow Briton betrayed him. Lack of evidence saved Caskie's life for the first time; instead he received a suspended prison sentence and was ordered to leave Marseille. This was partly helped by Caskie's ability to speak Gaelic, confounding his interrogators.^[3]

Caskie headed for Grenoble, where he was employed by the university, and acted as a chaplain for interned British soldiers and resident civilians. The Germans later ordered that all British-born civilians in the occupied countries be interned in Germany; Caskie managed to influence an Italian commandant to release many of them. Caskie was arrested again and spent some time in Italian custody at Sanremo, held in the old fortress prison.^[11] Later in 1943 he was transferred back to German custody and eventually put on trial in Fresnes, and sentenced to death. Awaiting execution by firing squad, Caskie asked to see a pastor. This saved his life; the German army padre Hans Helmut Peters successfully appealed to Berlin to spare Caskie. He then spent the rest of the war in a Prisoner of War camp, resuming his ministry in Paris after the war.

The Scots Kirk in Paris had been unused throughout the war, and lack of maintenance led to the church having to be rebuilt during the 1950s. To help pay for the rebuilding, his autobiographical account of his extraordinary wartime activities was published as The Tartan Pimpernel in 1957. The 1950s building proved to have serious defects and had to be again rebuilt in the late 1990s, Caskie's book being again reissued.

Caskie finally returned to Scotland as minister in Old Gourock Church. In 1967 he became a minister at Wemyss Bay and Skelmorlie on the Firth of Clyde.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in September 1959 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the foyer of the BBC Television Theatre.^[12]

He retired to Edinburgh in the early seventies and lived the final year of his life with his younger brother in Greenock. He died in 1983 and is buried at Bowmore on Islay. Various personal artefacts, including his wartime medals, can be seen at Kilarrow Parish Church, Bowmore.

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in June 1945 for services to the Forces in France.^[13]

He was honoured by the French government for his wartime service. The Alliance France-Ecosse society erected a memorial plaque at the rue de Forbin in Marseille, France.^[14]

On 26 October 2019 a memorial plaque marking his work was unveiled at the Fort de la Revere near Nice by the Le Devoir du Memoire organisation, which honours those affected by the war, including Resistance fighters.^[15]

In 2018, a play based on Caskie's book was written by Graeme Dallas and John Hughes.^[16][17]

• Caskie, Donald (1957). The Tartan Pimpernel. London: Oldbourne Press. OCLC 1614029.

• Donald Caskie at Find a Grave