LONDON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Eileen Nearne, who as a young woman worked undercover heroically in Nazi-occupied France, has died in relative obscurity in England, police say.
Nearne died in September at 89, alone in her apartment in Torquay. Those who knew her in the Devon seaside resort only learned of her past when police found her medals, including the French Croix de Guerre and Member of the Order of the British Empire.
The BBC dug out a 13-year-old interview it had conducted with Nearne in which she maintained her cover, using the name Rose and wearing a wig.
Nearne, whose mother was French, grew up in France. She and her sister Jacqueline made their way to England after World War II began and joined the Special Operations Executive. Eventually, Nearne decided to become an agent.
"I knew I could do that kind of work because I was, by nature, a solitary person, and that was essential," she said in the 1997 interview, telling the BBC agents needed to adapt to their surroundings.
In March 1944, she was flown to France and worked there until July as a radio operator, when she was arrested by the Gestapo. She stuck to a cover story under torture, which saved her life, but she spent the rest of the war in concentration camps.
UPI
