Donald Currie Caskie, OBE, DD (22 May 190227 December 1983) was a minister in the Church of Scotland, best known for his work in France during World War II. In Marseille from 1940 to 1942 he presided over the British Seaman's Mission which housed, fed, and clothed British soldiers and airmen stranded in France after the German victory over France in June 1940. He was a member of the Pat O'Leary escape line which helped more than 600 Allied sailors, soldiers and airmen, plus many civilians, to escape from Occupied France (mainly through Spain).
In April 1942, Caskie was arrested by the Vichy France police but allowed to live in Grenoble where he continued his work helping stranded soldiers and airmen. In 1943, he was arrested again and condemned to death by the German occupiers of France. He was saved by the intervention of a German pastor. He spent the remainder of World War II in prison.
The 'Fasti' – the record of all Church of Scotland ministers since the Reformation – simply mentions that he was "engaged in church and patriotic duties in France, 1939–1945".
Caskie fed, housed, and dressed soldiers -- replacing their uniforms with civilian clothing and claiming to the authorities that they were civilians. Although suspicious of Caskie's Mission and occasionally raiding it, the Vichy police allowed it to continue to operate but they collected most British soldiers in Marseille and interned them at Fort Saint-Jean. The interned soldiers were allowed to leave the fort on parole in the evenings. The British government, through the American Consulate, provided a financial stipend to the interned soldiers and also to Caskie for his help to the "civilians" he housed and fed. The people who supported Caskie with funds and also housed soldiers included Louis Nouveau, a French businessman, and his wife Renée and George Rodocanachi, a medical doctor of Greek origin, and his wife Fanny, plus a number of British women living in Marseille.
Among the soldiers Caskie met were James Langley, who would escape France, return to Britain, and become an officer along with Airey Neave (another escapee), of MI9, created to help stranded soldiers and airmen escape countries occupied by Germany. Another was Ian Garrow, Scottish as was Caskie, who would create what became known as the Pat O'Leary Escape Line.
In Grenoble, Caskie was employed by the university, and acted as a chaplain for interned British soldiers and resident British civilians. He continued to help British soldiers escape France. In November 1942, the Germans occupied Vichy France, ending the relative tolerance of the Vichy police for Caskie's activities. Grenoble was in a region of France occupied by Italy, allied with Germany. In April 1943, Italian police arrested Caskie in Grenoble. The Germans later ordered that all British-born civilians in the occupied countries be interned in Germany; Caskie managed to influence an Italian commandant to release many of them. Caskie was arrested again and spent some time in Italian custody at Sanremo, held in the old fortress prison. Later in 1943 he was transferred to German custody, put on trial in Fresnes prison near Paris, and sentenced to death. Awaiting execution by firing squad, Caskie asked to see a pastor. This saved his life; the German army padre Hans Helmut Peters successfully appealed to Berlin to spare Caskie. He then spent the rest of the war in a prisoner of war camp, resuming his ministry in Paris after the war.
Caskie returned to live in Scotland in the 1960s and became minister in Old Gourock Church. In 1967 he became a minister at Wemyss Bay and Skelmorlie on the Firth of Clyde and at St. Cuthbert's Churck, Old Monkton, Ayrshire.
He retired to Edinburgh near the end of his life and, depressed and in ill health, lived in the Royal Scots Club. He had to vacate the room and move to an inexpensive bed and breakfast whenever a member of the club wished to use the room. In the final year of his life he lived with his younger brother in Greenock. He died in 1983 and is buried at Bowmore on Islay. Various personal artefacts, including his wartime medals, can be seen at Kilarrow Parish Church, Bowmore.
He was honoured by the French government for his wartime service. The Alliance France-Ecosse society erected a memorial plaque at the rue de Forbin in Marseille, France.
On 26 October 2019 a memorial plaque marking his work was unveiled at the Fort de la Revere near Nice by the Le Devoir du Memoire organisation, which honours those affected by the war, including Resistance fighters.
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