Selwyn Jepson

Who was Selwyn Jepson?

Selwyn Jepson was a British author, of the Far House, Farther Common, Liss, Hants.

His father was the mystery/detective author Edgar Alfred Jepson, his mother was Frieda Holmes, daughter of the musician Henry Holmes. His sister Margaret, also a novelist, was the mother of Fay Weldon.

Jepson was schooled at St. Paul's School, London and the Sorbonne. He served in the Tank Corps during World War I and in the Special Operations Executive, SOE, in World War II.

In his SOE role, "Captain" Selwyn Jepson was recruiting officer for F section, the independent French section. As a recruiter he was one of SOE's "most skilled craftsmen", and according to he was SOE's senior recruiting officer. When interviewed by the Imperial War Museum he stated:

"I was responsible for recruiting women for the work, in the face of a good deal of opposition, I may say, from the powers that be. In my view, women were very much better than men for the work. Women, as you must know, have a far greater capacity for cool and lonely courage than men. Men usually want a mate with them. Men don't work alone, their lives tend to be always in company with other men.