CORMEAU, Beatrice Yvonne

Flight Officer Beatrice Yvonne CORMEAU MBE Croix de Guerre avec Palme Légion d’Honneur

WAAF, SOE

Fluent French speaker from a childhood spent abroad; enlisted in WAAF in 1942, her husband having been killed in an air raid in 1940; recruited into SOE’s F Section and trained as a wireless operator. Parachuted to George Starr’s Wheelwright Circuit in south west France, 22/23 August 1943 as Annette and remained with him until the Liberation, sending 400 wireless messages in spite of extreme operational difficulties. One of F Section’s most successful and resourceful wireless operators and who was pivotal to her circuit’s receipt of more than 140 supply drops.

CORMEAU, Beatrice Yvonne

Those that served