Group    From 22/7/1940  To 15/1/1946

Special Operations Executive (SOE)

Categories: Armed Forces, Espionage

Countries: France, Germany

Spies, basically (but see below), working for the UK in WW2. Formed by Churchill and variously known as "Churchill's Secret Army", "The Baker Street Irregulars", the Pythonesque "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" or the deliberately dull-sounding "Joint Technical Board" or "Inter-Service Research Bureau". 117 SOE agents did not survive their missions to France. There is a plaque outside St Paul’s Church in Knightsbridge which gives the names of the women SOE agents who died in WW2. Culture 24 gives some detail of the SOE activities around Baker Street.

Parachuted into France the women operatives had a life expectancy of only 6 weeks, due, according to current thinking, to the incompetence of the SOE.

The organisation was officially dissolved on 15 January 1946.

2019: Francis Suttill (who interestingly shares a name with a member of the SOE, 1910 – 1945) contacted us via Facebook to question our use of the word 'spy' to describe members of the SOE rather than 'special agent'. From what he writes he knows much more about this subject than we do so we accept his correction.

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Special Operations Executive (SOE)

Commemorated ati

Christine Granville

Christine Granville, born Krystyna Skarbek, 1908 - 1952, SOE agent, lived her...

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Free French plaque

Alamy have a photo of the unveiling.

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Leopold Marks

Jewish cryptographer, Leopold (Leo) Samuel Marks, MBE, lived in flat 410 Park...

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Noor Inayat Khan bust

The Guardian reports: "the first stand-alone memorial to an Asian woman in th...

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Noor Inayat Khan - Taviton Street

Noor Inayat Khan, GC, 1914 - 1944, SOE agent, codename 'Madeleine', stayed he...

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Show all 10

Other Subjects

P. V. Crease

P. V. Crease

Co-partner or employee of the South Suburban Gas Company. Served but did not die in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War served, WW1
1 memorial
A. Dunsdon

A. Dunsdon

Co-partner or employee of the South Suburban Gas Company. Served but did not die in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War served, WW1
1 memorial
S. Holloway

S. Holloway

Employed at the Streatham bus garage. Served and was killed in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
G. T. Challice

G. T. Challice

R. Navy. Fought but did not die in WW1. Andrew Behan has kindly provided this research: George Thomas Challice was born on 9 May 1897 in Ballingdon, Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the eldest of the seve...

Person, Armed Forces

War served, WW1
1 memorial

Previously viewed

Sir John W. Simpson

Sir John W. Simpson

Architect. Born Brighton (though the picture source has him born in Scotland). His father and brother were also architects. Active member of RIBA and its president 1919-21. Architect to the Honoura...

Person, Architecture, Scotland

2 memorials
Founders' Hall - Cloth Fair, plaque with crest

Founders' Hall - Cloth Fair, plaque with crest

EC1, Cloth Fair, 1

This was the third site of the Founders Hall which was built here 1985-7.  The two plaques are either side of a very impressive solid woo...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Wakefield and the TA

Wakefield and the TA

SW17, Balham High Street, 213, Fusilier House

The plaque is below the window to the left of the ornate entrance. Presumably this is a foundation stone or a building opening stone for ...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Terrence Cuneo statue

Terrence Cuneo statue

SE1, Waterloo Station

See that book on the floor behind Cuneo? It hides a wee mouse, like those often found in Cuneo's paintings.  July 2014 Kent Online info...

1 subject commemorated, 3 creators
Sir Charles Wyndham

Sir Charles Wyndham

NW1, York Terrace East, 20

Greater London Council Sir Charles Wyndham, 1837 - 1919, actor-manager, lived and died here.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator