James Le Mesurier
British Army officer and founder of Mayday Rescue and the White Helmets; died in Istanbul in 2019
| James Le Mesurier | |
|---|---|
| Image | |
| Born | 25 May 1971 RAF Changi, Singapore |
| Died | 11 November 2019 (aged 48) Istanbul, Turkey |
| Nationality | British |
| Residence | |
| Occupation | Army officer; security consultant; humanitarian organiser |
| Known for | Founder of Mayday Rescue and co-founder of the White Helmets; OBE |
| Parents | |
| Spouse(s) | Emma Winberg (m. 2018; d. 2019) |
| Children | |
| Sibling(s) | |
| Education | |
| Predecessor | |
| Website | |
James Le Mesurier OBE (25 May 1971 – 11 November 2019) was a British Army officer and security consultant who founded the Mayday Rescue entities and co-founded the White Helmets (Syria Civil Defence). He worked with Alistair Harris at ARK Group from 2011 to 2014 before spinning out Mayday Rescue to focus exclusively on training and supporting Syrian civil-defence volunteers in opposition-held areas. UK government payments of £43 million between 2015 and 2018 for White Helmets support were made to Mayday Rescue FZ-LLC in Dubai. He died in Istanbul on 11 November 2019 after falling from a balcony; Turkish authorities concluded the death was suicide.[1][2]
Early life and military career
Le Mesurier was born on 25 May 1971 in Singapore to Lieutenant-Colonel Benjamin Le Mesurier (Royal Marines) and his Swedish wife Ewa-Lotta. He was educated at Canford School in Dorset, the University of Ulster and the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (International Relations and Strategic Studies). He joined the Queen’s Belfast Officer Training Corps, attended Sandhurst (where he graduated top of his class and won the Queen’s Medal), and was commissioned into the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Green Jackets in 1994. He served in Northern Ireland and the Balkans. In 1998 he was seconded to the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina under Carlos Westendorp, then deployed to Kosovo in 1999 with KFOR, serving as Intelligence Coordinator for Pristina City. He later applied to join MI6 but was rejected.[3][1]
The Working Group briefing summarises the timeline:
1971: year of birth, named James Gustaf Edward Le Mesurier
September 1990: 2nd Lt. (on probation) Undergraduate Cadetships
August 1996: Captain (536239) in Royal Green Jackets, British Army.
1998: seconded to the Office of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina under Carlos Westendorp, before being sent to Kosovo in the summer of 1999 after the deployment of KFOR…
Private security and ARK
After leaving the Army he worked in private security, including as Vice President for Special Projects at the Dubai-based Olive Group and as Senior Principal at Good Harbour Consulting in Abu Dhabi (training a gas-field protection force and other security roles). From 2011 to 2014 he worked with Alistair Harris at ARK. ARK-Lebanon had been founded in Beirut in 2009; ARK FZC was registered in Dubai in 2011. The briefing notes:
2011-2014: worked with the former diplomat Alistair Harris at ARK. [Ark-Lebanon] had been founded in 2009 in Beirut, and [ARK FZC] was registered in Dubai in 2011.
White Helmets and Mayday Rescue
In March 2013, following a meeting in Istanbul with the Syrian National Council and the Qatari Red Crescent, Le Mesurier used approximately $300,000 in seed money from Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom to work with the Turkish disaster-response team AKUT and establish a seven-day training course for a 25-person Syrian rescue team. The briefing states:
With $300,000 in seed money from Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom, Le Mesurier worked with the Turkish disaster response team AKUT to set up a seven-day course to train and equip a 25-person rescue team, recruited by the SNC, for duty in opposition-held areas of Syria.
In 2014 he founded Mayday Rescue FZ-LLC (Dubai) and Mayday Search and Rescue Training and Consultancy Services Limited (Turkey), followed in 2015 by Stichting Mayday Rescue Foundation (Netherlands). Mayday became the principal implementing partner channelling Western funding, training and equipment to the White Helmets. FCO expenditure records show payments totalling £43 million between May 2015 and October 2018; after FOI requests the FCO admitted these were paid to the Dubai commercial company rather than the Dutch stichting. The briefing records:
After providing misleading answers to questions submitted under the Freedom of Information Act, the FCO has admitted that its payments to “Mayday Rescue” for support of the White Helmets – £43 million from 2015 to 2018 – were made not to Stichting Mayday Rescue Foundation but to the commercial company Mayday Rescue FZ-LLC in Dubai.
and
FCO expenditure records show payments totalling £43 million between May 2015 and October 2018.
Le Mesurier received an OBE in 2016 “for services to the Syria Civil Defence group and the protection of civilians in Syria.”
Role in OPCW investigations
The Working Group paper claims that during OPCW Fact-Finding Mission investigations of alleged chemical attacks from 2015 onwards, Le Mesurier worked closely with Len Phillips (leader of FFM Team Alpha) to select White Helmets as witnesses for interview in Turkey. It further notes:
As an experienced military intelligence officer, Le Mesurier should have been able to assess this evidence [of staged chemical attacks].
Financial issues and death
In 2018–2019 Dutch auditors and subsequent forensic work examined cash withdrawals (including a $50,000 emergency-fund withdrawal connected to an evacuation operation), salary levels and bookkeeping. Le Mesurier admitted to backdating a receipt. The Grant Thornton forensic investigation concluded there was “no evidence of misappropriation of funds” and that the cash withdrawals by Le Mesurier and Emma Winberg “were justified and are accounted for.” On 11 November 2019 Le Mesurier fell from a balcony at his Istanbul apartment and died. Turkish forensic experts attributed the death to “general body trauma linked to a fall from height” and concluded it was suicide; he had taken sleeping pills. Three days earlier the Russian Foreign Ministry had publicly described him as a former MI6 agent. His widow has attributed the circumstances of his death and the collapse of Mayday to allegations raised by chief finance officer Johan Eleveld.[4][5]
The Working Group briefing observes that by the end of October 2019 “Le Mesurier was aware that both the business activities of Mayday Rescue and his connection with the increasingly controversial OPCW investigation of the Douma incident were coming under close scrutiny.”[1]
See also
External links
- Working Group briefing, December 2019
- James Le Mesurier (Wikipedia)
- BBC: Mayday (February 2021)
- Guardian, October 2020
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media, James Le Mesurier: a reconstruction of his business activities and covert role Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media, 16 December 2019 (updated 26 March 2021).
- ↑ Wikipedia, James Le Mesurier Wikipedia, accessed 10 October 2026.
- ↑ The Telegraph, James Le Mesurier obituary The Telegraph, 13 November 2019.
- ↑ BBC News, James Le Mesurier: White Helmets co-founder died from fall, Turkey says BBC News, 16 December 2019.
- ↑ The Guardian, How Syria’s disinformation wars destroyed the co-founder of the White Helmets The Guardian, 27 October 2020.