“It’s interesting. Such is the blessed quality of the human memory, that it is the happy and amusing incidents which prevail, and the worst moments become the most humorous and the most agreeable for reflection.” John Cox MC

I Am Yours Sincerely is the untold, true story about John Cox, and his times, during the Second World War, as a member of the Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.), also known as ‘Churchill’s Secret Army’ and ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’.

This secret organisation, formed in 1940, was given the remit by Winston Churchill to ‘set Europe ablaze’. They worked with the local resistance in occupied Europe and the Far East to sabotage the enemy and gather valuable intelligence.

John’s mission as part of the so-called Jedburgh teams was to parachute behind enemy lines, conduct reconnaissance and espionage; their tagline being Surprise, Kill, Vanish.

This is John’s story of friendship, bravery and love; written using many of his own words from memoirs and letters which he signed off ‘I am yours sincerely’.

His heartbreakingly unbelievable story follows him from university to decorated war hero, mission successes and failures and evading capture for which he was awarded the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre. At the end of the hostilities, while recovering in Ceylon, he met a young F.A.N.Y. (Field Auxiliary Nursing Yeomanry), there as an S.O.E. morse code operator and his wife to be.

The actor and writer of this solo show Ed Saunders-Lee is John’s step-grandson and is a recent graduate of the Guildford School of Acting. This year marks the 80th anniversary of John’s first mission in France and future plans include taking the play to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer, where it will be performed on the exact anniversary of his first, dangerous parachute jump.