Vera Atkins
Officially the French (F) Section’s intelligence officer and Maurice Buckmaster’s personal assistant, some considered Vera Atkins to be the real power in the F Section. She acted as a liaison between headquarters and the agents’ families (Pearl With-erington’s mother received a handwritten note from Atkins in response to each of her numerous enquiries regarding Pearl’s welfare). Atkins took a trip to Germany after the war to personally discover the fate of the F Section agents who didn’t return.
Raymond Billard (“Gaspard”)
A discharged French sailor who became one of Pearl’s lieutenants in the Marie-Wrestler network, Billard was one of the first resisters to encounter the Germans during the Battle of Les Souches. He is currently the secretary of Editions par exemple, the publishers of Pearl Witherington’s French memoir.
The FTP leader in the North Indre network, Alex Briant served as a deputy under the leadership of the Gaullist Armond Mardon, the mayor of Dun-le-Poelier until his arrest in June 1944. He worked with Pearl Witherington after she assumed leadership of the area.
Maurice Buckmaster
Often referred to as “the Colonel,” Maurice Buckmaster had been an army intelligence officer before being made the head of the SOE’s F Section.
Auguste Chantraine (“Octave”)
A farmer in the town of Tendu, near Chateauroux, and the mayor, he was an early leader in the Resistance in Indre. He became a key figure in the northern part of Maurice Southgate’s Stationer network, successfully pulling together several small FTP groups in the area willing to work with the SOE. Many drops of personnel (including Pearl Withergton) and supplies took place on his farm. He was arrested by the Germans and later executed at Mauthausen concentration camp in the spring of 1945.
Douglas Colyer
Pearl Witherington’s boss at the British embassy prior to the war who helped her find employment after the war.
Emile Coulaudon (“Gaspard”)
A leader in the Auvergne Resistance and the director of their sabotage efforts. After the leaders of the SOE’s Headmaster network were arrested, the Auvergne group was given assistance from Maurice Southgate in the Stationer network.
One of the only French military leaders who led his men to victory during the Battle of France, de Gaulle fled to London after being condemned to death in absentia for vocally opposing the surrender to Germany. There he became an inspiring leader—broadcasting radio messages and training servicemen—to many French people who wanted to resist the collaboration with Germany, but his relationship with British leaders during the war was always strained.
Jacques Hirsch
A French resister who worked extensively with the Stationer network and whose entire family was involved in the Resistance.
Henri Ingrand
A medical doctor who was involved in various Resistance activities from the beginning of the occupation, he was a cofounder in 1943 of the Auvergne resistance, where he remained to the end of the war.
Philippe Livry-Level
A French airman during World War I, Livry-Level escaped Nazi-occupied France and joined the RAF, lying about his age (he was too old), flying many successful missions, and receiving numerous awards.
Amédée Maingard
Initially trained to be a radio operator for the Stationer network, Amédée Maingard also became Maurice Southgate’s assistant organizer and later helped Pearl organize the huge network into sections, eventually taking control of the Shipwright network himself.
The mayor of Dun-le-Poelier, the town near the Battle of Les Souches, and a Gaullist resistance leader of the North Indre resistance before Pearl took it over. He was found out and arrested by the Gestapo on June 1, 1944, shortly after the arrest and questioning of Maurice Southgate.
Jacqueline Nearne
Born in Britain to an English father and French mother, Jacqueline was raised in France but escaped to England when France was invaded by Germany. Because she was fluent in French, she was recruited by SOE’s F Section and became a courier for the Stationer network (but her path rarely crossed with Pearl’s).
Francis Perdriset
A French army captain from Châteauroux (the secret headquarters of the AS and the FFI in the Indre area), who responded to Pearl’s request for a military commander. He worked with the Maquis of the Marie-Wrestler network.
Marshall Pétain
A beloved French hero of World War I, Marshall Pétain became the leader of Vichy France, the collaborationist French government during World War II, and as such he—and his army of military police, the Milice—became enemies to the French Resistance.
Gaëtan Ravineau
A Maquis from the Marie-Wrestler network who functioned as its chief treasurer and paymaster. He is currently the vice president of Editions par exemple, the publisher of Pearl Witherington’s French memoir.
This family lived in the guardhouse of the Les Souches estate and provided shelter to those in the disrupted Stationer network for a month prior to D-day. The Sabbasiers were directly involved in the Battle of Les Souches.
Maurice Southgate (“Hector Stationer”)
The very capable leader/organizer of the F Section’s enormous Stationer network, Maurice Southgate was an old schoolmate of Pearl Witherington’s, and she specifically requested to join his network. After his arrest, Pearl helped divide the Stationer network into four separate networks.
The Trochet family
Pearl and Henri found refuge on the farm of this rural French family immediately after Maurice Southgate’s arrest. Pearl affectionately referred to the mother and father as Grandpa and Grandma Trochet.
Philippe de Vomécourt (“Saint Paul”)
A French resister who allowed the very first F Section weapons drop to occur on his land, de Vomécourt—who had lost his father in World War I and whose two brothers were SOE agents—became heavily involved in Resistance activities, was trained briefly by the SOE at one point, and escaped from capture several times (being once imprisoned at the Prison of Saint Paul, hence his code name).