Eileen Nearne
| Eileen Nearne | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Nickname(s) | Rose |
| Born | 15 March 1921 London, England, UK |
| Died | 2 September 2010 (aged 89) Torquay, England |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom, France |
| Service/branch | |
| Years of service | 1943–45 |
| Unit | Wizard |
| Relations | Jacqueline Nearne (sister), Francis and Frederick Nearne (brothers) |
Eileen Mary "Didi" Nearne MBE, Croix de Guerre (15 March 1921 – 2 September 2010 (date body found)) was a member of the UK's Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II. She served in occupied France as a radio operator under the codename "Rose". (French Resistance operative Andree Peel is also known as Agent Rose.)
Born in 1921 in London to an English father, John Nearne, and Spanish mother, Marie de Plazoala, she was the youngest of four children. Her elder sister, Jacqueline Nearne, and one of her two brothers, Francis, would also become SOE operatives.
In 1923, the family moved to France, where Nearne became fluent in French. The two young women made their way to London via Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Gibraltar and Glasgow, while the rest of the family remained in Grenoble, despite the German invasion of the country. On her arrival in England she was offered service in the WAAF working on barrage balloons, but turned this down and was recruited by the SOE. Initially Nearne worked as a home-based signals operator, receiving secret messages from agents in the field, usually written with invisible ink on the back of typewritten letters. Her sister Jacqueline was sent to France to work as a courier. The sisters were supposed to keep their roles secret from one another, but were unsuccessful.
She was flown by a Lysander aircraft to a field near Les Lagnys, Saint-Valentin in Indre, France, in the late hours of 2 March and the early hours of 3 March 1944 with Jean Savy to work as a wireless operator for the Wizard network as part of Operation Mitchel. Her cover story was that she was Mademoiselle du Tort (also using the aliases Jacqueline Duterte and Alice Wood). Using the code name "Rose", she was given the mission of helping Savy set up a network in Paris called "Wizard"; its aim, unlike the networks dedicated to sabotage, was to organise sources of finance for the Resistance. Nearne's role was to maintain a wireless link to London, and in the course of the next five months she transmitted 105 messages.
...
Wikipedia