Ian Garrow

Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Grant Garrow DSO (24 August 1908 - 28 March 1976) was a British army officer with the Highland Light Infantry.

Early career

Garrow attended the Glasgow Academy, where he rose to the rank of cadet sergeant in the academy's officer training corps. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 9th Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry in the Territorial Army on 21 May 1930. He was promoted to lieutenant on 21 May 1933 and entered active service on 9 June 1937.

Second World War

Following the surrender of the Highland 51st Division at Saint-Valéry-en-Caux on the Normandy coast on 12 June 1940, Garrow, then a lieutenant, managed to escape being taken prisoner. On hearing that France had surrendered, Garrow and other British personnel tried to escape to the Channel Islands, but were unable. In August, after walking to Marseilles, Garrow turned himself in to the Vichy French regime and was officially interned, although able to move freely around the city.

From October 1940, Garrow began working with other British internees and agents such as Nancy Wake, to organise the escape to Britain of Allied internees, POWs and other personnel stranded in France.