Frank Pickersgill

After completing his education in Canada, Frank Pickersgill (MA 1938 UC) moved to France with dreams of becoming a journalist. Those dreams were quickly dashed, however, when he was captured near the beginning of World War II and sent to the Saint-Denis Internment Camp as an enemy alien. After two years, Pickersgill escaped the camp and made his way to Britain where he joined the Canadian Intelligence Corps. Fluent in German, Latin, Greek and French, Pickersgill worked closely with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and was parachuted into occupied France on June 20, 1943. While working with the French Resistance, Pickersgill was captured once again. Following a foiled escape attempt, he was shipped to the Buchenwald concentration camp where he was executed along with 35 other SOE agents on Sep 14, 1944, at the age of 29. Posthumously, Pickersgill received several honours, including the Legion of Honour from the French government. The U of T also designated a Pickersgill-Macalister Garden on the west side of the Soliders’ Tower monument.