William Grover-Williams Biography
William Charles Frederick Grover-Williams (born William Charles Frederick Grover, 16 January 1903 - February or March 1945), also known as "W Williams", was a Grand Prix motor racing driver and special agent who worked for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) inside France. He organized and coordinated the Chestnut network. He was captured and killed by the Nazis.
Born to an English father and a French mother in Montrouge, Hauts-de-Seine, Grover-Williams grew up fluent in both the French and English languages. When World War I broke out, his family moved to Monaco where he got a job as a chauffeur. Mechanically inclined, and fascinated by motorized vehicles, Charles Frederick William Grover-Williams bought a motorcycle and began racing. Returning to Paris, in 1919 he worked as the chauffeur for the famous Irish war artist, Sir William Orpen.
Personal and early life
Grover-Williams was born in Montrouge, Hauts-de-Seine on 16 January 1903 to Frederick and Hermance Grover. Frederick Grover was an English horse breeder who had settled in Montrouge. Frederick met a French girl, Hermance Dagan, and they were soon married. Their first child was Elizabeth, born in 1897. William had two other siblings - Alice and Frederic.
When William was eleven, he was sent to live with relatives in Hertfordshire, in the United Kingdom. After the war, Frederick Grover moved the family to Monte Carlo. It was there that William developed a fascination for automobiles, having been taught to drive a Rolls-Royce by his sister's boyfriend. Grover-Williams passed his driving test whilst in Monaco and was granted a licence. At the age of 15, Grover-Williams acquired a motorcycle made by the Indian Manufacturing Company and it became his pride and joy. He would later go on to compete in motorcycle races in the early 1920s, although he kept it secret from his family by adopting the pseudonym, "W Williams".
In 1919, the Irish portrait painter, William Orpen became the official artist of the Paris Peace Conference. Orpen bought a Rolls-Royce car and hired Grover-Williams as his chauffeur.
Racing career
By 1926, Grover-Williams had begun racing a Bugatti in races throughout France, using the alias "W Williams",
entering the
Grand Prix de Provence at Miramas and the Monte Carlo Rally. In 1928, he won the French Grand Prix, repeating in 1929. That same year, driving a Bugatti 35B, painted in what would become known as "British racing green", he won the inaugural Monaco Grand Prix beating the heavily favored Mercedes of the great German driver, Rudolf Caracciola.
In November 1929, Grover-Williams married Yvonne Aubicq, whom he had met when chauffeuring the two around Paris. Successful financially, they maintained a home in a fashionable district of Paris while owning a large house in the resort town of La Baule, Pays de la Loire, on the Bay of Biscay, which was home to one of the annual Grand Prix races. In 1931 he won the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. He also won the Grand Prix de la Baule three consecutive years (1931 to 1933). Then his career waned and he was out of racing by the latter part of the 1930s.
World War II
Following the Nazi occupation of France in World War II, Grover-Williams fled to England where he joined the Royal Army Service Corps. Due to his fluency in French and English he was recruited into the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to foster the French Resistance. He recruited fellow racing driver Robert Benoist and together they worked in the Paris region to build up a successful circuit of operatives, forming sabotage cells and reception committees for parachute operations.
On 2 August 1943, Grover-Williams was arrested by the SD and underwent lengthy interrogation before being deported to Berlin and was then held prisoner in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
