George Binney

Sir Frederick George Binney, DSO (23 September 1900, Epsom, Surrey[1][2]–1972 Jersey[3]) was a noted Arctic explorer.

[7] Along with his older brothers, Binney attended Summerfields School in Oxford before winning a King's Scholarship at Eton College.

[9] During a company restructuring in 1931, Binney's role in the field was terminated, but he declined the offer of an office job in Winnipeg and returned to London.

[citation needed] Binney subsequently succeeded in establishing company representation in South America and Asia and made personal visits to Iran and China in the pre-war years.

Binney attempted to circumvent this by sending material through Finland, but after the first two shipments, the Germans pressurised the Finns into stopping any further transits, leaving the Skagerrak as the only option.

Under cover of poor weather and the long hours of winter darkness, all the ships were able to evade German patrols and reach Britain.

Operation Bridford used converted motor gunboats, which made six return trips between October 1943 and March 1944 carrying some 25,000 tonnes of cargo.

[15] Binney had personally led these missions, returning to Sweden by air, on one occasion strapped into the bomb bay of a de Havilland Mosquito bomber.

[16] For the Operation Bridford runs, he was given the substantive rank of Commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve to give him the legal status of commodore of the flotilla in case he were captured.