Yvonne Rudellat

Yvonne Rudellat
Nickname(s)	Jacqueline
Born	11 January 1897 France
Died	23 or 24 April 1945 Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Germany
Allegiance	France United Kingdom
Service/branch	Special Operations Executive, FANY
Years of service	1942–1945
Rank	Ensign
Unit	Physician/Prosper
Spouse(s)	Alex Rudellat

Yvonne Claire Rudellat MBE, Croix de Guerre, (née Cerneau, 11 January 1897 – 23 or 24 April 1945) was a member of the French Section of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II and was the first female SOE-trained agent to go to France. After working with the Resistance for a year she was captured and died in Bergen-Belsen just after its liberation by the Allies.

Yvonne Rudellat was born Yvonne Claire Cerneau on 11 January 1897 at Maisons-Lafitte, near Paris, France. She was the second youngest of ten children. Her eight older siblings had died in infancy; her younger brother Jean lived to age 18. Her father was a horse-dealer for the French Army and, when her domineering mother would allow it, Yvonne accompanied him on buying trips. After his death, Yvonne found it difficult to live with her mother, so she moved to London and got a job as a saleswoman at Galeries Lafayette then in Regent Street. However, her mother followed her and they lived together in Pimlico.

At least partly to get away from her mother, Yvonne married 32-year-old Alex Rudellat on 16 October 1920. Alex was an Italian national, an ex-cavalryman and undercover agent in the Italian army, but now a head waiter at the Piccadilly Hotel, also in Regent Street. Unfortunately for Yvonne, Alex, following Italian tradition, invited his widowed mother-in-law to stay with them, which she did for a number of years before returning to France. The Rudellats had one child, Constance Jacqueline, who was born in 1922. They stayed at a number of addresses around Pimlico in houses bought by Alex as an investment; they let rooms not used by themselves. Latterly they occupied the basement at 146 Warwick Way, letting the rest of the rooms. During this period a young Joan Littlewood let one of the rooms, while studying at RADA.

In 1935 Yvonne and Alex separated after Yvonne had had an affair but Alex refused to divorce her and they continued jointly to bring up their daughter. Yvonne moved out and went into property management in her own right, but in 1938 she got into financial difficulties, sold up and moved back in with Alex, but in separate rooms, in the basement of 146 Warwick Way. With the outbreak of war, Constance joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), met a sergeant in the Royal Army Pay Corps, Ronald Pepper, and married him on 12 December 1939. Ronald, too, moved into 146 Warwick Way.

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