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

Air Mechanic 2nd Class George Greenland

Air Mechanic 2nd Class George Greenland

George Greenland was born on 10 June 1896 in Stepney, London, the second of six children of George Greenland (1871-1923) and Charlotte Harriet Greenland née Sayers née Ockleford (1867-1946). His bi...

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Volunteer Cecilia Mary Lopresti

Volunteer Cecilia Mary Lopresti

Cecilia Mary Lopresti was born in Highbury, London, on 7 May 1908, the fourth of the five children of Herbert James Lopresti (1871-1917) and Amelia Maud Lopresti née Peckham (1873-1968). Her birth ...

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW2
2 memorials
W. E. Lawrence

W. E. Lawrence

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
T. Billington

T. Billington

Resident of the West Ward, Hendon who served and died in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Forrest Melvin Cox

Forrest Melvin Cox

Major Forrest Melvin Cox was born on 20 February 1916 in Carrollton, Greene County, Illinois, USA, the youngest of the three children of Joseph Ivan Cox (1891-1969) and Alta Maria Cox née Barrow (1...

Person, Armed Forces, Tragedy, USA

War served, WW2
1 memorial