In 1935 aged 14 he enlisted in the Royal Artillery at Woolwich as a Boy Soldier Bandsman and later also gained his proficiency certificate as a wireless telegraphy operator.

The MONK circuit were able to carry out repeated acts of sabotage with explosives parachuted in from British bombers, (see article on Charles Skepper).

Everybody at the apartment was taken away while Bousquet and the Gestapo made the place look as normal as possible so that they could wait and trap any members of Skepper's team who visited.

On the next day Arthur Steele was arrested when he called to visit Skepper with their courier Eliane Plewman code name "Gaby" and several French members.

[13][14] It is noted that SS-Obersturmführer Ernst Dunker (born 27 January 1912 in Halle) was tried post-war in France for his crimes and executed on 6 June 1950 in Marseille.

[8] The citation for his Posthumous Mention in Despatches written on 23 August 1945 by Major General Colin Gubbins states that he was executed at Buchenwald Concentration Camp on 14 September 1944.

[18] On 17 April 1944 Steele was promoted to the rank of captain while in captivity,[19] he was reported to have "Died whilst prisoner of war in German hands 14 September 1944" but was later reclassified "Killed in Action"[20] The Statutes of the Order of the British Empire do not allow for posthumous awards but Major General Colin Gubbins head of SOE wished Steele to be awarded an MBE and on 9 June 1945 placed in writing his wish for that to happen because at the time of the original recommendation the British authorities did not know that Steele had been killed.

[8] Gubbins's nomination for Steele's "mention in despatches" on 23 August 1945 stated:[16] This officer was parachuted into FRANCE in June 1943 as W/T operator to an organiser in the MARSEILLE area.

[citation needed] There is a commemorative plaque on the street-level floor of the apartment building at 8 Rue Mérentié where Steele, Charles Skepper and Eliane Plewman were captured in March 1944.

[27][28] At Buchenwald a plaque was inaugurated on 15 October 2010 which honours the memory of the Allied officers murdered between September 1944 and March 1945 including twenty agents of SOE, one of those named is Captain Arthur Steele.