A plaque to Edward Zeff

A plaque commemorating the WW2 Secret Agent Edward Zeff, has today been unveiled on Embassy Court, his post-war home. The plaque was first put on display to the public at a special ceremony in the Corn Exchange last November.

The arrival of the special guests including Zeff family members.

Introduction by the Mayor.

Address by Paul McCue, Military Historian, author of 'Brighton’s Secret Agents' and Edward Zeff’s biographer

Address by Paul Roberts representing Bluestorm Ltd, the freeholder.

Address and unveiling by Don Miller representing The Zeff family

The ceremony was concluded with the Last Post, a one minute silence and Reveille.

Zeff had an amazing wartime career. Despite having no experience of clandestine warfare, he volunteered for S.O.E. to work as a secret agent in enemy-held France in the dangerous role of radio operator.
Germans  were eventually hot on Zeff’s trail in Lyons, but it was only when he was trying to return to Britain that he was betrayed and captured as he was about to cross the Pyrenees into Spain. Badly tortured and interrogated in Paris, he nevertheless held firm - only to then be sent to Mauthausen concentration camp.
As a Jew and a British agent, his fate should have been doubly sealed, yet somehow this remarkable man managed to survive. He was awarded the MBE (Military) and, by the French, the Croix de Guerre.
Edward Zeff returned to Brighton to live at 94 Embassy Court with his wife, but subsequently returned to his tailoring business in Paris and died there in 1973.