“I help the old to remember, and the young to understand.”
The following list represents the heart and soul of this project - the constantly updated list of the interviewees, whose reminiscences and opinions have been specially filmed, and their wartime photographs and documents carefully scanned.
For many of these WW2 veterans their work had been top secret and remained so for many years after the war. Others carried out roles that had been more in the public eye yet have never been sufficiently recognised in books and documentaries.
Even though it's so long since WW2 many had never spoken so openly and comprehensively on camera about both their operational and personal wartime experiences. We're very privileged to have met them, and proud to have finally put their unique and fascinating stories 'on the record'.
SOE / FANY - Female F Section 'agents'
Lise de Baissac Légion d'honneur, Croix de Guerre, MBE [now deceased]
Yvonne Burney Légion d'honneur, Croix de Guerre, MBE [née Baseden]
SOE / FANY - Coders, W/T operators, and trainers in UK, Massingham [Algeria], Cairo, Italy, & Far East
Baroness Daphne Park
Lady Pamela "Pammie" Niven
Lady Betty Norton
Ann Bonsor
Elvira Burbeck
Margaret Pawley
Elizabeth Ward
Barbara O'Connell
Paddy Sproule
Marian Jones
Jill Lewis
Elizabeth Austin
Eileen Simpson
Pauline Payne
Mildred Schutz
WW2 FANYs on the Home Front - [FANY ATS]
Ambulance, lorry, and staff car drivers, and also with blood transfusion service, anti-aircraft regiments, and bomb disposal squads. One was a radar technician and another stationed in Belfast during the Blitz.
Barbara Dalzell
Mary Soames
Dorothy Sarson
Phyllis Norman
Patience Maxwell
Mary Clive
Eileen King
Ann Forbes
Mary Smythe
Diana Tennant [née Quilter]
Marjorie Inkster
In Scotland helping support the exiled Polish army [30,000 men]
Peggy Jacobsen [now deceased]
Norah Grajnert
WW2 FANYs in Kenya
Moira Smiley
Juanita Carberry
Male SOE agents in occupied France
Robert "Bob" Maloubier DSO - F Section sabotage specialist
Marcel Jaurent-Singer Légion d'honneur, MBE – F Section wireless operator
Henri Fiacono - F Section wireless operator
Leslie Fernandez MM, OBE - SOE trainer at Beaulieu and F Section agent
SAS in occupied France
Prof M.R.D. Foot - SAS intelligence officer / served in Northern France / captured & POW / official historian of the SOE
SOE, Royal Air Force, and Admiralty
Peter Lee - SOE security officer in Algeria & Italy
Norman “Paddy” Davies RNVR - MTB skipper in Corsica/Italy
Noreen Riols [née Baxter] – civilian SOE trainer at Beaulieu
Group Captain Hugh Verity DFC, DSO, Légion d'honneur - [now deceased] Sq Leader of Special Duties Squadron
John B Austin DFC & Bar - Acting C.O. 624 Squadron (Special Duties) stationed in Algeria
Patricia Davies – civilian working at the Admiralty and part of the Operation Mincemeat team - aka “The man who never was”
Comète Line and Evaders
Andrée Dumon OBE - “Nadine” - Comète Line organiser and courier
Fred Gardiner - RAF crew member - shot down over occupied Belgium and evaded capture before repatriation from France in an SOE Lysander
Bob Frost - RAF crew member - shot down over occupied Belgium and, aided by members of the Comète Line, evaded capture while making his way through France to Spain & Gibraltar
Stan Hope - RAF evader - shot down over Belgium and, aided by members of the Comète Line, reached the Pyrénées before being captured along with the late Andrée De Jongh (aka "Dédée")
Edward “Eddie” Hearne DFC - RAF evader who was shot down over Normandy after D-Day
Bletchley Park - aka 'Station X'
Mavis Batey [née Lever] - Enigma decrypter in 'The Cottage'
Doreen Page [née Sear] - civilian German translator in 'Hut 8'
Whaddon Hall - HQ of communications division of the Secret Intelligence Service [SIS]
Geoffrey Pidgeon - SIS [MI6 Section VIII] and author of "The Secret Wireless War"
Y Service
Marge Arbury
Daphne Brookes
Kay Wingate
Kay Staddon
Marjorie Lilley
Pamela Elliott
Jean Cleminson
Vera Morgan
Joan Nicholls - historian and author of "England Needs You: The Story of Beaumanor Y Station in World War 2"
The Royal Observer Corps
The ROC was, by 1942, spread right across mainland Britain and had a hugely diverse membership in control rooms and at observation posts. In 1944, specially trained Observers were placed on board naval ships. For more information click HERE. The following interviews with WW2 ROC veterans were filmed by Andrew Denyer for his ‘Sentinels of Britain’ project:
Joyce Shrubbs joined the Royal Observer Corps on her 17th Birthday at the Bedford Group HQ.
Tony Foster was in the Oxford HQ and remembers being on duty when the announcement was made that the Observer Corps was becoming the Royal Observer Corps.
Leslie Leney volunteered to serve on board an American ship during the D-Day operation to help prevent accidents from "friendly fire".
Bill Harford was recruited as a schoolboy who was "very keen on aircraft spotting".
Arthur Lyne remembers plotting a German bomber flying straight over the Truro Operations room whilst he was on duty there.
Eileen Brush recalls the busy atmosphere in the Ops Room in Truro.
Joe James love of aircraft grew as the number of planes in the skies above Cornwall grew.
Joy Cooper recalls serving with the Royal Observer Corps despite food shortages and bombings in Lincoln.
Ross Luke talks about the challenges of working full time, and then having to fit in ROC shifts too.
Norman Leigh recalls chatting with "the chaps on the posts" when things were otherwise quite.
Molly Metz remembers how well the members of the crew in the Truro Ops Room "gelled", regardless of their outside occupations
and backgrounds.
Denise Chapman describes the challenges of being a woman who wanted to join an ROC Post.
Philip Chapman describes the different locations of posts that he served on in the Watford group.
Ted Rawston recalls how RADAR provided the post Observers with some brief warning of approaching aircraft from the sea.
