Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An unusual Great War group of six awarded to Monsieur Alexandre Franck, Belgian Army, who onetime served as an agent for British Military Intelligence

Belgium, Order of Leopold II, 5th Class breast badge, silver and enamel, with crossed sword riband fitment; Belgium, Croix de Guerre 1914-18; Belgium, War Medal 1914-18; Belgium, Victory Medal 1914-19; Belgium, Volunteers Commemorative Medal 1914-18; Great Britain, British War Medal 1914-20 (A. Franck), good very fine and better (6) £200-250

Alexandre Franck appears on the British War Medal roll signed by Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Wallinger of British Military Intelligence, dated in London on 7 August 1919 (T.N.A. WO 329/2356), the relevant entry stating that he had resided in the Avenue de la Chappelle, Antwerp, was deceased, and that his next of kin was his father, who resided at 32 Rue van Dyck (Parc). Added to which Franck’s MIC entry clearly states his single B.W.M. entitlement was granted under the umbrella heading of ‘Belgian Agents’ and ‘Agents 102’. The circumstances of his death remain unknown, but the following extract from Michael Occleshaw’s Armour Against Fate is not without interest:

‘There were, of course, many other organizations which, while successful to a lesser degree, nevertheless ran the same risks and penalties. Drake tells us that the number of agents employed by G.H.O. services alone was ‘roughly 6,000’, of whom 98 lost their lives - 91 executed, 4 dying in prison, 2 shot and 1 electrocuted when trying to cross the Dutch-Belgian frontier. A further 644 were imprisoned for sentences totalling 700 years (the time actually served amounted to 175 years), and 10 were deported. Major Wallinger, however, told Colonel Kirke that the total number of G.H.Q. agents in the occupied territories was 5,500 of whom 1,200 were imprisoned, serving an average of 14 months, and 200 were shot or died in prison (though in a later letter he gave a total shot or dying in prison as 120). The reason for the disparity between the two men’s figures almost certainly resides in a question of terminology, a question of what was precisely meant by the words ‘agent’ and ‘spy’. An agent is an individual directly employed by an Intelligence Service sent into a foreign country to obtain information. A spy is an individual who served in the enemy’s own ranks and, more often than not, is recruited by the agent ... the numbers employed both directly and indirectly by the British Intelligence Services was one that the Germans simply could not contain, much less control. Every sort of person was employed, ranging ‘from abbes, high officials of the Gendarmerie, a Marchioness of some 60 years of age, big industrialists and prominent barristers, down to seamstresses, poachers, smugglers, bargemen and railway officials ... ’ ’