Eleanor Rigby" death reveals British war heroine

[Mary]

A reclusive old lady who died alone in her flat in southwest England and had no one to pay for her funeral has posthumously shot to fame after it emerged she was an intrepid World War Two secret agent.

 

Eileen Nearne died aged 89 at her home in the town of Torquay on September 2. In the absence of any known relatives to make funeral arrangements, authorities entered the flat to take charge several days later, a local council spokeswoman said. A search for documents that might help locate relatives instead yielded a treasure trove of medals and papers that revealed the life of a woman once known as "Agent Rose," who defied the Nazis as a wireless operator in occupied France.

 

British media compared her death to that of the fictional Eleanor Rigby, who died alone in a Beatles song.

 

"She was to be buried, like Eleanor Rigby, along with her name," said the Times newspaper, which published on its front page a large black-and-white photo of a young Nearne in a beret.

 

"That may now change. It ought to, given Eileen Nearne's service to her country ... Her courage was capped only by her humility. Her life deserves to be sung about every bit as much as Eleanor Rigby's," said the Times in an editorial.

 

A member of the secretive Special Operations Executive (SOE), the 23-year-old Nearne took a night flight into France in March 1944 to work as an undercover agent helping coordinate a network of resistance fighters and spies.

 

She was arrested by the Gestapo four months later but was able to hide her true identity thanks to her fluent French, acquired during childhood when her family lived in France.

 

However, Nearne was arrested again weeks later and was imprisoned at Ravensbrueck concentration camp before being transferred to a forced labor camp in Silesia. She escaped in April 1945 but was re-arrested, before escaping one last time.

 

After the war, Nearne was awarded an MBE, or Member of the Order of the British Empire, in recognition of her services. She lived for most of the rest of her life with her sister Jacqueline, who had also served in the SOE.

 

Since her sister's death in 1982, Nearne had lived alone and never spoke about her wartime exploits.

And no one knew? A true hero

[harry hayes]

There are quite a few lessons to be learned it that story, Mary.

 

Happy days

[Lt Kije]

A true hero

 

Totally Agree

[Jerry]

I've heard so many fictional spy stories that I'm flustered at encountering as real life story, such as this. A farewell salute from this quarter to an unsung hero of our youth.

[Peter T]

I remember watching the film "Odette" when I was young. A story that has stayed with me and one that first made me aware just how cruel people can be.

[Dizzy]

What a remarkable Lady and what an life eh? Hard to believe she hardly ever spoke of her early years to anyone else and that she almost took her 'secret' past to the grave with her.

 

That being said her obituary,which details her life, shows what a trully courageous person she was and after the war she often had to live in the care of her sister due to the effect it all had on her

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/special-forces-obituaries/8009812/Eileen-Nearne.html

 

Thankfully she is no longer having a council funeral although from the sounds of her she may have preferred a low key 'no fuss' affair

[Jerry]

Thanks, Diz. I'm even more impressed at this dramatic life story.

[observer]

SOE employed quite a few women, and they were arguably better at it than the blokes. Odette Churchill finished up being shot in a Nazi death camp.