His father left his family in the Seychelles to join the British Army in East Africa during the First World War.

On one occasion Haggard disobeyed orders not to approach within 15 miles (24 km) of Tripoli but in fact penetrated a dense minefield by following an Italian minelayer.

Seraph was chosen to take the American General Mark Clark and his staff to talks with Vichy French officers in Algeria.

On 19 October Jewell landed Clark's party in small collapsible canoes about 50 miles (80 km) west of Algiers, with three members of the British Special Boat Section paddling them in.

Clark and his party then dashed for the boats, paddled hard through the surf, and were hauled on board; Seraph reached Gibraltar on 25 October.

The ruse involved dropping a corpse, dressed in a Royal Marines major's uniform, with a briefcase chained to its wrist stuffed with "secret" papers containing disinformation, into the Mediterranean near the coast of Spain, a neutral but Axis-leaning nation, to deceive the Germans.

Jewell married, at Pinner, Middlesex, in July 1944 Rosemary Patricia Galloway, a WRNS cipher officer.