George Lane, MC, wartime commando, was born on January 18, 1915. He died on March 19, 2010, aged 95




Born in Hungary but coming to England in the 1930s, George Lane won the Military Cross for his part in the commando ?Tarbrush? raids on the Pas de Calais coast in May 1944. After the war he farmed with his first wife, Miriam Rothschild, before turning stockbroker and then running his own economics newsagency.

George Henry Lane was born in 1915 as Dyuri Länyi, elder son of Ernest Länyi, in a small village in northern Hungary. The village was in a part of Hungary that was given to Czechoslovakia in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, so the Länyis moved to Budapest. He became a swimming champion and played water polo throughout Hungary.
In 1935 he came to England to improve his English.
He was more or less adopted by the Dean of Windsor, Albert Victor Baillie, who liked to holiday in Hungary. Baillie sent Lane to Christ Church, Oxford, and he went on to London University. He wrote some articles about the trauma of meeting demoralised Germans arriving in Harwich, which attracted the interest of a woman in Northamptonshire.

During the war Lane was sent to recuperate at Ashton Wold and he recognised her address. The woman had died, but her daughter remembered the articles. Her first words to him were: ?Why the hell didn?t you answer my mother?s letter? You ought to be ashamed of yourself.? In 1943 they were married. She was Miriam Rothschild.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Dean Baillie recommended Lane for the Grenadier Guards, describing him as ?absolutely English in outlook and mentality? and with a ?genius for getting on with people?. Lane joined as an officer cadet but the Home Office intervened, describing him as a friendly alien, and tried to deport him. He refused to go, and with the help of Lady Baillie of Leeds Castle, the mother of a girlfriend, he secured personal recommendations from Anthony Eden, David Margesson and Jim Thomas. He was allowed to stay, but to his outrage was sent to the Pioneer Corps to work with a pick and shovel, soon becoming a sergeant. A succession of commanding officers recognised his value and eventually he joined SOE, now demoted to private.

He embarked on training in communications, survival in an enemy country and working with explosives. But he made it clear that he would not be dropped into Hungary. As a result he had to transfer to the Commandos, serving under Lord Lovat in No 4 Commando. Lord Louis Mountbatten had the idea that better use should be made of foreigners in the British Army because of their language skills and intense hatred of Hitler.

Lane and a commando captain, Bryan Hilton-Jones, identified 140 for a proposed ?X Troop?, of whom 80 were selected. Largely composed of Jewish refugees from Europe, this X Troop became Number 3 Troop in Number 10 Inter-Allied Command, of which Hilton-Jones became CO. Presently these men were spread into different units and undertook reconnaissance raids. For one of these Lane needed to blow a safe. A prison inmate was brought to the Isle of Wight to show him how to do it, but was reluctant to reveal the secrets of his trade, only doing so when Lane swore not to take this skill with him into civilian life.

In May 1944 Lane was raid commander of three missions, known as Tarbrush raids, to examine mines on the French coast near Ault. Attempting to escape home with a colleague in a rubber boat, he was caught and both men were accused of being saboteurs. Kept in cellars at Cayeux, they were finally transported blindfolded in cars to a castle where, to his surprise, Lane was taken into the presence of Rommel.

Rommel questioned him through interpreters, Lane pretending to be Welsh and to know no German. He lightened the atmosphere by saying: ?If the Field Marshal thought I was a saboteur, he wouldn?t have invited me here.? In the ensuing conversation Rommel apparently relaxed enough to ask him ?How?s Montgomery doing?? Lane replied: ?Unfortunately I don?t know him, but he?s preparing the invasion and he?ll be here shortly,? adding, for good measure, ?by the shortest route?. Rommel went so far as to tell him he thought it was a shame that the British and Germans had not united to fight against Soviet Russia.

Lane believed that this conversation with Rommel saved his life. He was conveyed to Schloss Spangenberg, near Fulda, where he spent ten months in the company of 300 British officers. Fortunately, it had a good library and, while others played cards, Lane studied estate management.

When the Americans approached, the prisoners were marched away, but Lane escaped and hid up a tree. To his horror a German climbed the same tree, but proved to be a deserter. The German advised Lane to make his way to a nearby hospital. Here, too, his presence was detected and he was about to be handed over, when he told the hospital administrator he would be wise not to do that. The Americans would soon be there and he would need a friend. When they duly arrived, Lane was able to vouch for the man and he was put in charge of the hospital.

At liberty he got to Paris and found his brother-in-law, Victor Rothschild, in a Rothschild house. He asked for a hot bath. He was told there was no hot water, though no shortage of Château Lafitte and Dom Pérignon. For his commando operations in France Lane was awarded the MC, the citation commending his ?tenacity of purpose in obtaining vital information?.

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