John Geoffrey Appleyard, DSO, MC & Bar (20 December 1916 – 13 July 1943) was a British Army officer, who served in the Commandos and Special Air Service during the Second World War.

[2] Geoffrey grew up in Linton, West Yorkshire,[3] and was educated at Bootham School in York,[4] where he combined academic success with natural history and roof-climbing.

[6] Mobilised for active service on 24 August 1939,[1] he commanded an RASC mobile motor repair workshop as part of the British Expeditionary Force in northern France.

[5] Appleyard then served aboard the 62-foot (19 m) ketch-rigged Brixham trawler Maid Honour, which sailed to the coast of West Africa, spending six months reporting on enemy submarine activity and carrying out clandestine raids.

[3] The highlight of the assignment was Operation Postmaster, in which the Italian liner Duchessa d'Aosta and the German tug Likomba were boarded and towed from the neutral Spanish island of Fernando Po and taken to Nigeria.

[10] Appleyard took part in many SSRF raids on the coast of occupied France, landing in small boats from motor launches, compelling the Germans to reinforce their defences along hundreds of miles of coastline, and diverting significant numbers of troops from combat duties elsewhere.

"[5] The SSRF was disbanded in April 1943,[10] but many of its members were transferred to Algeria, where they formed the nucleus of Bill Stirling's new 2nd Special Air Service, of which Appleyard was appointed second-in-command.