A FRENCHMAN who escaped the Vichy regime to fight with the Free French Air Force from Elvington and later settled in York has died aged 89.

Jacques Jean Marcel Monteil, who was born in Dijon in 1921, trained as an electromechanical engineer in Paris before the Second World War broke out.

When the German army invaded, he escaped the Vichy regime, cycling 800 miles from Paris to Marseilles. He travelled by tramp steamer to Morocco where his father commanded a regiment. But he decided not to join his father’s unit and journeyed to England to join the Free French Air Force.

Jacques, known as Jack, joined the 374 Halifax Squadron at Elvington and spent the rest of the war years there.

In 1943, he met Mavis, whom he married in 1947, and after an extended honeymoon in Paris, they moved back to York in 1949, living in Haxby Road and later in Huntington. Jack worked for Power Samas, later to become International Computers Ltd (ICL), and Mavis worked for a number of years in the laundry in York Hospital.

Jack died on May 21, while being looked after by friends in Scarborough. His funeral was held at St Olave’s Church, Marygate, for which Ken Booth, brother of the late Mavis, hand-crafted and painted a cross of Lorraine, the symbol of the free French Air Force.

Ken fondly remembered Jack’s love of motorbikes “Del-boy” cars, Land Rovers and Jaguars.

He said: “He always drove like a deranged mistral streaming out of the North African deserts.

“Jack represented all that is heroic by modern standards. The Cross of Lorraine is not only the symbol of the free French Air Force, but also of his personal courage and bravery.

“Like many other men of that time who actually gave their lives, Jack was prepared to sacrifice all of his tomorrows to give us all our todays.”