Humanitarian charity founderwho made a difference in Syria

A politics student at the University of Ulster at Jordanstown, he became a platoon commander with A Company of the Royal Irish Rangers, based at Newtownards and took part in VCPs with the Royal Green Jackets during the Troubles.

James Le Mesurier was born on May 25 1971 into a military family in Singapore to Lt Colonel Benjamin Le Mesurier, an officer in the Royal Marines, and his Swedish wife, Ewa. One of his relatives was the Dad’s Army actor John Le Mesurier.

He was educated at Canford School, the University of Ulster, and the University of Wales at Aberystwyth, where he studied international politics and strategic studies. The last year of his course was undertaken at Aberystwyth for security reasons; it is believed following his being identified on an army patrol in West Belfast by a fellow student at University of Ulster.

Following graduation from university, he went to Sandhurst, where he graduated top of his class and won the Queen’s Medal.

He was commissioned into the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Green Jackets in 1994 and served alongside General Nick Carter, the current Chief of the Defence Staff, and was regarded as an exceptionally talented soldier who loved his job and was a gifted organiser.

During his military career, he participated in operational tours with UN Peacekeeping forces in Bosnia and Kosovo.

After leaving the Army in 2000, Le Mesurier worked on the Jericho Monitoring Mission set up as part of the Ramallah Agreement, where he was part of an international team responsible for monitoring Palestinian militants. He went on to several private-sector appointments at the Abu Dhabi-based private security consultancies, Olive Group and Good Harbour.

In 2011, he moved to Istanbul to join ARK, a group trying to find peaceful solutions to the Syrian civil war which had just broken out. That led directly to the founding in 2013 of MayDay Rescue, an organisation built on Le Mesurier’s conviction that traditional models for stabilising conflicts were flawed.

He believed that the most effective model for saving lives in wars, was soft security, delivered by the local people most affected.

MayDay trained small groups of volunteer rescuers in paramedic and urban rescue skills and they became known as the Syrian Civil Defence Forces, or White Helmets.

Within a few years his efforts had resulted in more than 3,000 volunteers operating across Syria. However, the White Helmets inevitably became not only first responders in Syria but also the first witnesses to attacks, and their footage and testimony of the aftermath of chemical attacks and barrel bombings meant that they came to play a key role in exposing the Syria government forces atrocities against civilians.

As a consequence, the Assad government designated them a terrorist group and deliberately targeted members during the conflict, with the result that over 200 were killed and 500 suffered serious injuries.

The Russian and Syrian governments launched a propaganda initiative against Le Mesurier, falsely claiming that his group was linked to al-Qaeda and had faked evidence of chemical attacks.

He was also accused of being a British spy; Le Mesurier responded by making himself freely available for media interviews but he refused to take legal action against outlets publishing the allegations saying that the money would be better spent saving lives in Syria.

In the summer of last year, when the last rebel held areas of Syria began to fall, Le Mesurier successfully lobbied the British and Canadian governments to avert the massacre which he feared: the result was that nearly 500 White Helmets and their families were successfully moved to Jordan via Israel.

Well aware of the limits of humanitarian efforts, his motto in Syria was: “Whatever we can, whenever we can, for as long as we can.”

In 2016 Le Mesurier was awarded the OBE.

He was a passionate dog lover and had rescued dogs in the Balkans, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. He was married three times and had two daughters.

The cause of his death has not yet been established; his body was found in the street below the flat which he shared with his wife in Istanbul. The Turkish government has launched an inquiry.

He is survived by his wife, Emma Winberg, whom he married in 2018, his daughters Cicely and Darcey, his sister, Rebecca, and his parents.