§ Captain F. Noel-Bakerasked the Secretary of State for War whether he will make a full statement on the circumstances of the death in Bulgaria, in the summer of 1944, of Major Frank Thompson.
§ Mr. LawsonMajor Thompson was one of a large number of brave and gallant officers who were entrusted with confidential Missions to the Balkans in connection with the assistance which we were giving to those movements which were offering active resistance to the Axis invaders. He was dropped into Eastern Serbia on the night of 25th–26th January, 1944, as the commanding officer of a special mission to establish contact with the Bulgarian Partisans whom we knew to be fighting the German forces of occupation. After many vicissitudes, in the course of which his Mission was continually on the run owing to the activity of units of the Bulgarian forces who were collaborating with the Germans, Major Thompson succeeded in crossing the frontier into Bulgaria on 15th May, 1944, together with a Bulgarian Partisan unit from the main body of which he unfortunately became subsequently separated. He was finally ambushed and captured on 31st May at a place some 25 miles east of Sofia.
A British sergeant, who was the sole survivor of his Mission, and was separated from Major Thompson two days after their capture, was subsequently told, on 15th June, that Major Thompson had been shot. In answer to his query as to why an officer in uniform had been shot, the Bulgarian officer replied that as he had been operating with rebels and outlaws, he had been treated as such. This was subsequently confirmed to the sergeant by a Bulgarian lieutenant and a Bulgarian non-commissioned officer, who showed him two photographs resembling Thompson.
It has been reported that the Bulgarian gendarmes responsible for the shooting of Major Thompson were tried before a Bulgarian People's Court at Botevgrad, condemned to death and executed in January this year.