Jacqueline Nearne MBE, code named Jacqueline and Josette, was an agent for the British Special Operations Executive in Nazi-occupied France during World War II.
16 Facts About Jacqueline Nearne
1.
2.
Jacqueline Nearne worked in France for the unusually long time of 14 months and returned safely to England.
3.
Jacqueline Nearne moved with her family to France in 1923.
4.
In 1942, along with her sister Eileen, Jacqueline Nearne fled France, making her way to England via Spain, Portugal, and Gibraltar.
5.
On her arrival in England, Jacqueline Nearne applied to the Auxiliary Territorial Service but was turned down as she had no experience of driving in the dark and on the left hand side of the road.
6.
Jacqueline Nearne was given a commission with the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and trained to be an SOE agent in the same class as Lise de Baissac, Mary Herbert, and Odette Sansom.
7.
Jacqueline Nearne remained in France for more than 14 months without a break, an unusually long time for an SOE agent to remain uncaptured in France.
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Brian Stonehouse 8.
Jacqueline Nearne learned from that not to stay overnight in hotels as their occupants were monitored closely by the French police and the Germans.
9.
Jacqueline Nearne usually traveled on slower trains as they were less subject to police and German searches and controls than the faster express trains.
10.
Jacqueline Nearne's cover story was that she was a representative of a pharmaceutical company with no fixed address.
11.
Jacqueline Nearne's forged documents said her name was Jacqueline Norville.
12.
Jacqueline Nearne had opposed the recruitment of her younger sister, Eileen, as an SOE agent, declaring her to be too young and immature.
13.
Jacqueline Nearne returned to France in September 1944 after the liberation of France by allied armies.
14.
Jacqueline Nearne nursed her but Eileen never regained her mental health.
15.
In 1946, Jacqueline Nearne played "Cat", a character based on herself, in the RAF's Film Unit production of Now It Can Be Told which was released to theatres in 1948 as School for Danger, a drama-documentary about the wartime training and deployment of SOE operatives.
16.
Jacqueline Nearne's portrait, painted by SOE agent Brian Stonehouse, is displayed on the wall of the Special Forces Club in London.