Refuge Bay, Hawkesbury River, NSW. Informal portrait of Major Francis George leach "Gort" ...

Refuge Bay, Hawkesbury River, NSW. Informal portrait of Major Francis George leach "Gort" Chester DSO OBE, a British officer seconded to SOE-Australia, code named Inter Allied Services Department, outside a tent at a training camp. He was preparing for Operation `Jaywick' in which operatives carried out a successful raid in MV Krait on Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbour. Gort Chester led several covert operations including Python, Agas I and Agas III. During his service he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). He died at Jesselton, now Kota Kinabalu, on the 18th August 1946 of blackwater fever. He was buried in the old Jesselton civilian cemetery.