Special Operations Executive, SOE

On the wall of the west cloister of Westminster Abbey is a memorial to all those who served in the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. It was unveiled on 13th February 1996 by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The bronze emblem of the Special Forces Club is shown and the inscription reads:

SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE In memory of the members of all nationalities of S.O.E. who sustained the spirit of resistance and gave their lives for the liberation of the occupied countries 1940-1945

The SOE was created at the instigation of Winston Churchill to encourage and support the spirit of resistance in the Nazi and Japanese occupied countries by training and supplying resistance groups in each country. It carried out work in Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. Its agents were trained to maintain a continuous programme of sabotage and then rise in support of the eventual Allied invasion. The effort in Europe was credited by General Eisenhower with having shortened the war by six months.

The installation of the memorial was the project of the Special Forces Club, which was founded at the end of the war as an association of former SOE members. The participants in the service and unveiling included Colonel Francis Cammaerts, senior commander of Allied Clandestine Operations in south east France, Colonel Andrew Croft, who worked in North Africa and Europe, Sir Lewis Hodges, war time commander of Special Duties squadrons in the UK and India; Ole Lippmann, a leader of the Danish resistance, and Jos Mulder Gemmeke, a Dutch resistance agent.

There is also a memorial to members of the Intelligence Forces (MI5, GCHQ, SIS) in the south cloister of the Abbey.

Further viewing and reading

DVD "Now it can be told", 1944, shows the training and work of SOE with real life agents Jacqueline Nearne M.B.E. and Harry Ree D.S.O, O.B.E. and service personnel as the cast

"Memories of an SOE historian" by M.R.D. Foot

"SOE. An outline history of the Special Operations Executive" by M.R.D. Foot

SOE agent files are at The National Archives, Kew, Surrey

A memorial with names of female agents was unveiled at Tempsford airfield in Bedfordshire

The Military Intelligence Museum

For agents sent to France see Nigel Perrin's website

Special Forces Roll of Honour