Eileen Mary "Didi" Nearne
15 March 1921 – 2 September 2010
Eileen Mary "Didi" Nearne MBE,
(15 March 1921 – 2 September 2010)
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".
Born in 1921 in London to an English father and French mother, she was the youngest of four children. Her older sister, Jacqueline Nearne, and one of her two brothers, Francis, would also become SOE operatives. In 1923, the family moved to France. When France fell, she made her way to England with her sister, viaPortugal and Gibraltar. 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.
She was flown by a Lysander aircraft to a field near Les Lagnys, a town in Indre, France in the late hours of 2 March and the early hours of 3 March 1944 to work as a wireless operator for the Wizard network with Jean Savy as part of Operation Mitchel. Her cover story was that she was Madamoiselle du Tort (also using the aliases Jacqueline Duterte and Alice Wood). In July 1944 her transmitter was detected and she was arrested. Nearne "survived, in silence, the full revolting treatment of the baignoire" in the torture chamber of the Paris headquarters of theGestapo on the Rue des Saussaies.
She reportedly managed to convince her captors, under torture, that she had been sending messages for a businessman, unaware that he was British. On 15 August 1944, she was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp where she refused to do prison work. Her head was shaved and she was told she would be shot if she continued to refuse.
She was then transferred to a forced labour camp in Silesia. While in one of these prisons she was reportedly tortured. On 13 April 1945 she escaped with two French girls from a work gang by hiding in the forest, later travelling through Markkleeberg, where they were arrested by the S.S. but released after fooling their captors and reportedly hidden by a priest in Leipzig until the arrival of United States troops.
SHE died alone and penniless in her tiny flat — seemingly forgotten and unmourned like The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby.
But yesterday wartime spy Eileen Nearne, known by her codename Agent Rose, got a heroine's send-off.
Farewell ... message on floral tribute SWNS.COMHundreds turned out to pay their respects to the 89-year-old, including VIPs from the Armed Forces and high-ranking French officials.
Heroine ... Eileen Nearne SWNS.COM
Twenty-two standard-bearers formed a guard of honour as her coffin was solemnly draped with a Union Flag. And two bagpipers played a lament as she was carried into church followed by niece Odile Nearne, her only surviving relative.
Eileen was parachuted into Occupied France in 1944 to link up with the Resistance.She was captured and tortured by the Gestapo before escaping from a concentration camp.After the war she was awarded an MBE. She never married and lived alone in her flat in Torquay, Devon. When she died of a heart attack she faced a pauper's burial — until her incredible story emerged.
At her requiem mass yesterday, Father Jonathan Shaddock called her "a humble lady Odile, who flew in from her Italian home, said: "She never wanted to speak about what she did during the war "She was very modest. I am proud to be her niece."
The Royal British Legion organised the service. Devon chairman John Pentreath said: "We had calls from the US, Canada and all over saying, 'Make sure she gets a proper send-off.' We are proud to give her the farewell she deserves." Among the wreaths was one from The Sun, saying: "Thank you for your sacrifice."
