Second World War hero Roger Landes served as Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent and radio operator around Bordeaux.
He was picked because of his French upbringing. His father, a jeweller, left London for Paris, getting married at the rue de Tournelles synagogue in 1913.
Roger, the second of three sons, studied architecture and came to London in 1939. Recruited into the SOE, he was parachuted into France in 1942 to keep contact between the Scientist circuit, a resistance network, and London.
Promoted to captain, he became its leader but the network was disbanded a year later when its arms cache was betrayed. Parachuted back in 1944, he rebuilt the network, organising 125 arms drops. When de Gaulle visited liberated Bordeaux, he told the foreign hero to leave. Landes ended the war as a major after being part of a commando group in the Malayan jungle.
He received the Military Cross for his first period in France and Bar for the second. He received the Croix de Guerre in 1945. On a rousing visit to Bordeaux in 1950 he received the Légion d'Honneur, upgraded to officer in 1992. In the 1950s and 60s he spoke to groups like Ajex.
He married Ginette Corbin, daught-er of a Jewish resistance colleague, in 1947. She died in 1983. He is survived by their son and his second wife, Margaret, whom he married in 1990.