Valençay SOE Memorial
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Valençay SOE Memorial
The Valençay SOE Memorial is a monument in France to the members of the Special Operations Executive F Section who died working to liberate the country during World War II. The memorial was unveiled in the town of Valençay, in the Departments of France, department of Indre, on May 6, 1991, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the despatch of F Section's first agent to France. Former SOE agents Pearl Witherington Cornioley and her husband Henri, who lived nearby, promoted the establishment of the memorial. Witherington had worked in the area as a SOE agent during World war II. The monument was designed by Elizabeth Lucas Harrison, herself a former Resistance member, who originally gave it the name "Spirit of Partnership". Dedicated by the Minister of Veterans Affairs for France and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, the memorial's ''Roll of Honour'' lists the names of the 91 men and 13 women members of the SOE who gave their lives for France's freedom. Vale ...
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Valençay 2011
Valençay () is a Communes of France, commune in the Indre Departments of France, department in the administrative region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. Geography Valençay is situated in the Loire Valley. It sits at the end of a plateau. on a hillside overlooking the River Nahon (river), Nahon. Valençay is part of Berry. History The commune was formed by the union of three settlements: the "Bourg-de-l'Eglise", the "Bas-Bourg" and what is called the "old quarter." The chateau is a part of the Loire Valley by virtue of the date of its construction and its dimensions, which give it a similar appearance to Château de Chambord, Chambord. A 12th-century castle existed on this site, was demolished and construction of its replacement began in 1520, albeit slowly. The chateau was born in the 16th and 17th centuries by the Estampes family. Louis of Estampes, governor and baillif of Blois, undertook the building of the large round tower at the end of the entrance wing. He died in 1530 ...
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Marcel Clech
Marcel Rémy Clech (1905 – 1944) was a French agent in the French section of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. He was sent to France on three missions and worked as a wireless operator in three different networks before his arrest, and was executed at Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Clech was born in Brittany and worked as a taxi driver in Brittany before joining the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II as a wireless operator. He participated in three missions: the first was aborted after coming under fire; the second involved assisting in the landing of SOE agents in France, after which he worked with the Monkepuzzle network; and the third mission saw him work as a radio operator for the Inventor network. The network was betrayed, and Clech was arrested and later executed at the Mauthausen concentration camp in 1944. He was posthumously awarded the Médaille de la Résistance, and is commemorated at The Valençay SOE Memorial in Fra ...
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Comte Jacques-Arthus Marc De Montalembert
''Comte'' is the French, Catalan and Occitan form of the word "count" (Latin: ''comes''); ''comté'' is the Gallo-Romance form of the word "county" (Latin: ''comitatus''). Comte or Comté may refer to: * ''Comte'', French for a count (i.e. the nobleman) * ''Comté'', a county in France (territory ruled by a count) * La Comté, a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France * Comté cheese, a cheese from Franche-Comté, eastern France People with the surname * Alfred Comte (1895–1965), Swiss aviation pioneer * Auguste Comte (1798–1857), French philosopher * Charles Comte (1782–1837), French lawyer, journalist and political writer * Claudine le Comte (born 1950), Belgian fencer * Fabienne Comte, French statistician * Fernando Compte (1930–2013), founder and first president of the International Sambo Federation * Ferran Soriano i Compte (born 1967), Spanish CEO of various football clubs, including Manchester City F.C. * Harry Comte (1909—1945), Australian ...
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James Mayer (spy)
James Mayer (1920–1944) was a Mauritian secret agent during World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ....Lt. Col. E.G. Boxshall, ''Chronology of SOE operations with the resistance in France during world war II'', 1960, document dactylographié (exemplaire en provenance de la bibliothèque de Pearl Witherington-Cornioley, consultable à la bibliothèque de Valençay). Voir sheet 54, CARVER CIRCUIT. See also * SOE F Section timeline References 1920 births 1944 deaths Mauritian people of British descent 20th-century Mauritian people Mauritian military personnel of World War II Mauritian spies World War II spies British Army personnel killed in World War II British Army General List officers Special Operations Executive personnel killed in World Wa ...
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John Kenneth Macalister
John Kenneth Macalister (July 19, 1914 – September 14, 1944) was a Rhodes Scholar and a Canadian agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in World War II. The purpose of SOE in occupied France was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance. SOE agents allied themselves with French Resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. Macalister was captured by the Germans shortly after his arrival in France. The Germans also captured his wireless and used it to deceive SOE headquarters in London and to capture agents and military equipment. Macalister was imprisoned and later executed. Biography Born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, Ken Macalister graduated from the Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute (GCVI) and from the University of Toronto, where he studied law and won first-class honours in every subject in every year. From Toronto, he was elected as one of Ontario's two Rhodes ...
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Vera Leigh
Vera Leigh (17 March 1903 – 6 July 1944) was an agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive during World War II. Leigh was a member of the SOE's Donkeyman circuit and Inventor sub-circuit in occupied France until she was arrested by the Gestapo. She was subsequently executed at the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp. Early life Vera Leigh was born Vera Glass on 17 March 1903 in Leeds, England. She had been abandoned as a baby and adopted while still an infant by H. Eugene Leigh, a well-known American racehorse trainer with an English wife, who renamed his adopted daughter Vera Eugenie Leigh. After Mr Leigh's death, his wife married Albert Clark, whose son Victor Alexander Dalzell Clark became Leigh's step-brother and friend. When it came necessary to name a next-of-kin, Leigh chose Clark. Vera grew up around the stables of Maisons Laffitte, the training centre and racing course near Paris. Clark later remembered that, as a child, she wante ...
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Cicely Lefort
Cicely Margot Lefort (née Gordon, 30 April 1899 – February 1945) served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and in France for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with French Resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. Lefort arrived in France in June 1943 and was a courier, code named "Alice", for SOE's Jockey network (or circuit). She was arrested by the Gestapo in September 1943 and deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she was later executed. Early life Cicely Margot Gordon (often mistakenly called "Cecily") was born in London on 30 April 1899 to Margaret Humble Close Gordon (Lefort gave a decoy maiden name – "MacKenzie" – when she joined SOE). Although married to Christian ...
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Sidney Charles Jones
Sidney Jones MBE CdeG MR (1902–1944) was a British Special Operations Executive agent during the Second World War. He was captured and executed by the Germans. Early life Sidney Charles Jones was born in France on 25 November 1902, the son of Charles and Emily Louise Jones. Before the war he worked as Elizabeth Arden’s representative in France.''SOE in France an account of the work of the British Special Operations Executive in France, 1940–1944'', MRD Foot, HMSO, London, 1966. Wartime activities He was nearly 40 when he arrived in the French Riviera by felucca in late September 1942 with the mission of establishing the INVENTOR network as a sabotage circuit in Marseilles. Before the German occupation of Vichy France in November 1942 he had set up several sabotage teams which had burnt fifty goods wagons destined for Germany, and had damaged port installations. After five months in the field, Jones then returned to England. On the night of 14 May 1943 he was broug ...
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Noor Inayat Khan
Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan, GC (1 January 1914 – 13 September 1944), also known as Nora Inayat-Khan and Nora Baker, was a British resistance agent in France in the Second World War who served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially those occupied by Nazi Germany. As an SOE agent under the codename Madeleine she became the first female wireless operator to be sent from the UK into occupied France to aid the French Resistance during the Second World War. Inayat Khan was betrayed and captured, and executed at Dachau concentration camp. She was posthumously awarded the George Cross for her service, the highest civilian decoration for gallantry in the United Kingdom. Early life Noor Inayat Khan was born on 1 January 1914, in Moscow. She was the eldest of four children. Her siblings were Vilayat Inayat Khan, an author and Sufi teacher; Hidayat Inayat Kha ...
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William Grover-Williams
William Charles Frederick Grover-Williams (born William Charles Frederick Grover, 16 January 1903 – 18 March 1945 (or shortly thereafter)), also known as "W Williams", was a British Grand Prix motor racing driver. He is best known for winning the first Monaco Grand Prix. During World War II, Grover-Williams, code named Sebastian, worked as an agent in France for the clandestine British Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization. SOE's objectives were to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially those occupied by Nazi Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with French resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment. Grover-Williams created, coordinated, and led the SOE's Chestnut network which worked near Paris. The Chestnut network organised parachute drops of weapons and equipment from SOE and stockpiled them for the use of the resistance. The German Sicherheitsdienst (SD) captured Grover-Williams ...
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Henri Frager
Henri Jacques Paul Frager (3 March 1897 – 5 October 1944) was a member of the French Resistance during World War II . He was second in command of the CARTE network (under André Girard), then head of the SOE (F section) network DONKEYMAN, rising to the rank of major within SOE. SOE was a secret British organization. Its objectives were to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in occupied Europe and Asia against the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. SOE agents in France allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from Britain. In 1944, Frager was betrayed to the Germans, deported and executed. Early life Henri Jacques Paul Frager was born in France on 3 March 1897, the son of Alphonse Jean Frager and Eugénie Louis Adolpine Frager, née Sauvier. He married the Russian-born Louba Frager and worked as an architect in Nice in civil life. On 25 November 1940 he dined with André Girard in a restaurant in ...
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