Brias, Roger

Date of birth:: February 15th, 1904 (Stains, France)
Date of death:: February 17th, 1941 (at sea near Skinningrove, Yorkshire, United Kingdom)
Buried on:: Commonwealth War Graves Whitby Cemetery
Nationality:: French

Biography

Roger Brias is a French resistance fighter, Compagnon de la Liberation.
An officer in the merchant navy, he joined the Free French forces in 1940 when the freighter on which he served was seized by the British. He then carried out missions to transport troops and goods for the benefit of the allies in Africa and was killed when his ship sank in the North Sea.
Roger Brias began a career in the merchant navy by entering as a trainee at the "Compagnie des Chargeurs Réunis" in 1922. He carried out his military service in the French Navy from 1924 to 1925 and left it as a reserve 2nd class ensign. Returning to the "Chargeurs Réunis", he continued his career on the seas and became a Navy Lieutenant in July 1928 then a Navy Captain in November 1930.

At the start of the Second World War, Roger Brias was second officer on the cargo ship "Casamance", a cargo ship of the Compagnie des Chargeurs Réunis" requisitioned by the French Navy. On June 20, 1940, while docked at Verdon-sur-Mer, the freighter set sail for England with a cargo of copper. During the crossing, he took charge of the survivors of the British vessel "Prunella" which had just been torpedoed. Moored in the port of Southampton, it was seized on July 3 by the British authorities and transferred to the Free French Naval Forces. Roger Brias, joined to the FNFL, then took command of the cargo ship "Casamance".

At the head of his ship, Brias took part in the Dakar expedition in September 1940 and then in the Gabon campaign the following November. It then travels to various ports in Africa to Freetown from where the ship leaves for Europe.
At the beginning of 1941, the "Casamance" sailed from Glasgow in a convoy bound for Hull. On February 17, during this trip, by stormy seas and with its broken compasses, the boat ended up running aground off Skinningrove. Ordering his men to evacuate the ship, Roger Brias is swept away by the sea when he is taking his place in one of the lifeboats. His body was washed up on the shore the next day. He is buried in Whitby, Yorkshire.

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