All information about Eileen (Didi) and Jacqueline Nearne that has not been attributed in the following notes came from their niece, Odile Nearne, or from conversations between the author and Eileen Nearne.
1. ITV news film following the death of Eileen Nearne.
2. Email from Iain Douglas to the author in reply to a request for information, 16 January 2012.
3. Reported in The Guardian, 13 September 2010.
4. BBC News interview, 14 September 2010.
1. John and Mariquita Nearne’s marriage certificate.
2. Information about the children’s grandmother from Odile Nearne.
3. Information from Jenny Campbell-Davys.
4. French newspaper Boulogne, date unknown, but after the death of Jacqueline Nearne in 1982.
5. Francis Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/3.
6. Information from Odile Nearne.
7. Ibid.
8. Francis disclosed in his personal file, HS9/1089/3, that his father was known as Jack.
9. RAF records for Aircraftman 2nd Class Frederick John Nearne (1270875).
10. Information from Odile Nearne.
11. Jacqueline Nearne’s records from the FANY.
12. Letter from Claire Wrench to Jacqueline Nearne, 16 November 1980.
1. Letter from Jimmie to Jacqueline Nearne, 27 June 1942.
2. Letter from Jimmie to Jacqueline Nearne, 17 August 1942.
3. Selwyn Jepson’s personal file, HS9/796.
4. Interview at the Imperial War Museum, 1986.
5. STS 54, which came under the Signals Section of the SOE, had two locations: Fawley Court, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, and Belhaven School, Dunbar, in East Lothian, Scotland. Didi’s personal file does not say at which of these two schools she received her wireless training.
6. Since Didi was believed to have worked in Oxfordshire, this was likely to have been at the radio listening and transmission station of Poundon House near Bicester, Oxfordshire, although her personal file does not give details of the actual location.
7. According to Patrick Yarnold, on p. 70 of his book Wanborough Manor: School for Secret Agents, the ladies of Party 27.OB “were sent direct to the finishing course at Beaulieu… [and] did not pass through Wanborough.” Wanborough Manor was one of the preliminary training centers for recruits to the SOE.
8. Reported in Foot, SOE in France.
9. Reported in Escott, The Heroines of SOE.
10. Jacqueline Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/4.
1. Noreen Riols, who worked for the SOE, in conversation with the author, 27 June 2012.
2. Aonghais Fyffe, Security Liaison Officer, Special Training Schools, Scotland, reporting what he had been told by various people who knew Buckmaster, in conversation with the author on 11 June 2001.
3. Helm, A Life in Secrets, p. 40.
4. Vera Atkins’s personal file, HS9/59/2.
5. Jacqueline Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/4.
6. Buckmaster, Specially Employed.
7. Ibid., and photo of Jacqueline’s fake ID card.
8. Yvonne Rudellat’s personal file, HS9/1289/7.
9. www.paradeantiques.co.uk.
10. Jacqueline Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/4.
11. Ibid.
12. Maurice Southgate’s personal file, HS9/1395/3.
1. Maurice Southgate’s personal file, HS9/1395/3.
2. Text of a broadcast made after the war for the French Service of the BBC World Service.
3. Maurice Southgate’s personal file, HS9/1395/3.
4. Jacqueline Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/4.
5. The money that came to Francis via the Swiss consulate in Lyons is documented in his personal file at the National Archives. Although there is no explanation of the origin of the funds, they may have been from Swiss banks that held accounts for his parents or maternal grandparents who had given him a small allowance.
6. Francis Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/3.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
1. According to Yarnold, op. cit., p. 70, the ladies of Party 27.OB “were sent direct to the finishing course at Beaulieu… [and] did not pass through Wanborough.” Wanborough Manor was one of the preliminary training centers for recruits to the SOE but not all prospective agents had any preliminary training; Didi’s personal file does not give details of any preliminary training at all. There is no reference in her personal file either to Didi receiving the paramilitary training, which was conducted at several schools in Inverness-shire, the main one used by F Section being Arisaig. Although by this stage in the war many of the women agents had done this training, it is possible that wireless operators did not do it. Shrabani Basu in her book Spy Princess, about the life of Noor Inayat Khan, also an SOE wireless operator, says, “There is no evidence from Noor’s training files that she went to Arisaig. As a radio operator, it was probably thought better to concentrate her training in her specialized field.”
2. Recounted in Cunningham, Beaulieu: The Finishing School for Secret Agents, p. 66.
1. Jean Overton Fuller, The German Penetration of SOE, p. 111.
2. Foot, op. cit., pp. 300–2 ; Helm, op. cit., p. 50.
3. Nicholas, Death Be Not Proud, pp. 126–7 ; Foot, op. cit., p. 296.
4. Francis Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/3.
5. Ibid.
6. Conversation on 26 June 2012 between the author and Noreen Riols, who worked at SOE HQ and at the finishing schools in Beaulieu, and who knew Buckmaster.
7. Francis Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/3.
8. Ibid.
1. http://france.usembassy.gov/whm2.html; http://www.parisvoice.com.
2. Ibid.
3. Maurice Southgate’s personal file, HS9/1395/3.
4. McCue, Behind Enemy Lines with the SAS, p. 70.
5. Maurice Southgate’s personal file, HS9/1395/3.
6. Copy of note to Jepson from Atkins on Francis Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/3.
1. Eileen Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/2.
1. Marks, Between Silk and Cyanide, p. 399; Basu, op. cit., p. 199.
2. Various sources including Marks, op. cit., Basu, op. cit. and Helm, op. cit.
3. Maurice Southgate’s personal file, HS9/1395/3.
4. Ibid.
1. Jones, A Quiet Courage, p. 233.
2. BBC Radio Devon report, 21 September 2010.
1. Dufour was the agent with whom Violette Szabo was traveling when they came across German troops and a firefight ensued. While Szabo kept shooting, Dufour was able to escape.
2. Maurice Southgate’s personal file, HS9/1395/3.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Pierre Mattei’s citation for MiD, WO/373/102.
6. Maurice Southgate’s personal file, HS9/1395/3.
7. www.metpolicehistory.co.uk.
1. Maurice Southgate’s personal file, HS9/1395/3.
2. Ibid.
3. Jacqueline Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/4.
4. See Nicholas, op. cit., p. 272, and Ottaway, Violette Szabo, p. 156.
1. Eileen Nearne, speaking as Rose, in a television interview in 1997.
2. Evidence of Mme. Dubois, which was passed on to Jean Savy and is recounted in Eileen Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/2.
3. Conversation between Eileen Nearne and the author in 2001.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
1. Jacqueline Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/4.
2. Ibid.
3. Conversation between Eileen Nearne and the author in 2001.
4. Jones, op. cit., p. 280.
5. Conversation between Eileen Nearne and the author in 2001.
6. Eileen Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/2, and Circuit and mission reports and interrogations, HS6/576.
7. Eileen Nearne, speaking as Rose, in a television interview, 1997.
1. Maurice Southgate’s personal file, HS9/1395/3.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Despite a postwar MI5 investigation into Starr’s behavior, it was decided that no grounds existed for his prosecution. His story, and a justification for his strange behavior in the hands of the Germans, were given in Jean Overton Fuller’s book, The Starr Affair.
7. Francis Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/3.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Details of the transportation of the French prisoners from Fresnes on 15 August 1944 taken from a conversation with Eileen Nearne and an account by Monique Corblet de Fallerans, née Level, in her book Voyage nocturne au bout du parc.
1. Maurice Southgate’s personal file, HS9/1395/3.
2. Cecile Pearl Witherington’s personal file, HS/9/355/2.
3. It has been said that Pearl Witherington pushed for Jacqueline’s return to England so that she could take over her role on D-Day. In Maurice Southgate’s personal file, HS9/1395/3, there is a record of a message that he sent for Jacqueline soon after she had arrived in London in which he wished her well and said, “Tell her also that Marie [Pearl Witherington] will take over the Maquis on D-Day. If Jacqueline wants to do the same, let her think of her uniform.” This perhaps suggests that the rumor may have had some basis in fact.
4. Francis Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/3.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
1. Tillion, Ravensbrück, pp. 238–9.
2. Anthonioz, God Remained Outside, p. 34.
3. Morrison, Ravensbrück, pp. 24–5, and Tillion, op. cit., p. 69.
4. After she left Ravensbrück in 1943 Grese was sent to Auschwitz and ended her career in 1945 at Belsen concentration camp, where she was known as both the “Bitch” and the “Beast” of Belsen. Details of atrocities committed by her were found in the transcripts of the Belsen War Crimes trials, which took place in Lüneburg, Germany, between 17 September and 17 November 1945.
5. Tillion, op. cit., pp. 68–9.
6. Eileen Nearne in conversation with the author, 2001.
7. Professor M. R. D. Foot disputed the location of this particular camp, claiming it was Königsberg on the river Oder. However, Marie Lecomte, who was a prisoner in Königsberg with the “little paratroopers,” says it was in eastern Prussia and it has been confirmed in Morrison, op. cit., p. 209, that there was a camp at Königsberg in the eastern Baltic (eastern Prussia) where women prisoners worked on airstrips.
8. Eileen Nearne in conversation with the author, 2001.
1. Stessel, Snow Flowers, p. 28.
2. Official records of prisoner movements. Table shown in Stessel, op. cit., p. 39.
3. Eileen Nearne in conversation with the author, 2001.
4. Stessel, op. cit., p. 211.
5. Ibid.
6. Stessel, op. cit., p. 212.
7. Stessel, op. cit., p. 214.
8. Eileen Nearne in conversation with the author, 2001.
9. Corblet de Fallerans, op. cit.
10. In a document obtained by the author from the National Archives in 2001 (HS6/576 Circuit and mission reports and interrogations) and dated 15 May 1945, Didi mentioned having met Suzanne at Torgau. She also gave the name and full address of Yvette Landais. This document was added to Didi’s personal file when it was released after her death but the names of the two French girls had been removed. Didi’s friendship with Mlle Landais was confirmed to the author in 2012 by Pierre Landais, Yvette’s brother. M. Landais named Monique Level as a friend of both his sister and Didi, and says that Yvette told him that Monique escaped from the Germans during the march from which she and Didi also escaped. He also told the author that Yvette knew Didi by the name of Jacqueline du Tertre.
11. Information received by the author from Pierre Landais about his sister Yvette.
1. Letter from Pierre Landais to the author, July 2012.
2. Ibid.
3. Corblet de Fallerans, op. cit.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Letter from Pierre Landais to the author, July 2012.
7. Eileen Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/2.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
1. Mercer (ed.), Chronicle of the Second World War, p. 622.
2. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, p. 446.
3. Eileen Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/2.
4. Corblet de Fallerans, op. cit.
5. Ibid.
6. Eileen Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/2.
7. Ibid.
8. Letter from Major Rollo Young to the author, 14 May 2012.
9. Eileen Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/2.
10. Ibid.
1. Judex Mission records, HS7/134.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. M. Nerault died in Buchenwald in March 1945. Colette and her mother were sent to Ravensbrück, where Mme. Nerault died in late 1944. Colette was rescued by the Red Army at the end of April 1945 and put in the care of the Swedish Red Cross. She returned to France, and her young brother, Jean, in the summer of 1945. McCue, op. cit.
5. Judex Mission records, HS7/134.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Cutting from the News Chronicle found in Eileen Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/2.
9. Copy of a letter from Paulette to Didi that was sent to the author by Odile Nearne.
10. Eileen Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/2.
11. Helm, op. cit., p. 358.
12. Jacqueline Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/4.
13. Eileen Nearne’s personal file, HS9/1089/2.
14. Dame Irene Ward, in Helm, op. cit., p. 365.
15. Aonghais Fyffe in conversation with the author, 2001.
16. Helm, op. cit.
1. Records of the Ministry of Pensions, PIN93/2.
2. Jacqueline Nearne’s records from the FANY.
3. www.aviewoncities.com/nyc/unitednations.htm.
4. Shipping records at www.ancestry.com.
5. Records of the Ministry of Pensions, PIN93/2.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Letter to Jacqueline from her friend Odile.
9. Records of the Ministry of Pensions, PIN93/2.
10. Records of the Protocol and Liaison department at the United Nations archive in New York.
11. Ibid.
12. Jacqueline Nearne, quoted by Charles Lanius in Woman’s Day magazine, January 1947.
13. Memo to all liaison officers from the UN Chief of Protocol, Captain Johan de Noue, in the records of the Protocol and Liaison department at the United Nations archive in New York, 1946.
14. Brian Stonehouse’s obituary, The Independent, 20 January 1999.
15. Letter from Freddy (surname unknown), found in Eileen Nearne’s flat after her death.
16. Records of the Ministry of Pensions, PIN93/2.
17. Letter from Jack Nearne to Didi.
18. Records of the Ministry of Pensions, PIN93/2.
19. Conversation between Jenny Campbell-Davys and the author.
20. Letter from Jacqueline to Didi, a copy of which was sent to the author by Odile Nearne.
1. Copy of the eulogy sent to the author by Odile Nearne, who also supplied copies of all other material quoted in this chapter that is not otherwise attributed.
2. Obituary in The Times, 14 April 2004.
3. Conversation between Jenny Campbell-Davys and the author.
4. Information from Odile Nearne.
5. Information from Odile Nearne.
6. www.nigelperrin.com/mauricesouthgate.htm.
7. Obituary in The Times, 20 April 1992.
8. Obituary in The Guardian, 6 July 2000.
9. Details on a postcard sent by Eileen Nearne to her niece, Odile.
1. Eulogy given by Adrian Stones and shown on the website of the Special Forces Club at the time of the funeral. Some of his words were also quoted in various newspaper articles.
2. Odile Nearne’s address at Eileen Nearne’s funeral, reported on BBC News.
3. BBC television news report on 22 September 2010.
4. Copy of a letter discovered after Eileen Nearne’s death and sent to the author by Odile Nearne.