Yvonne Cormeau

Yvonne Cormeau
Born	(1909-12-18)18 December 1909 Shanghai, China
Died	25 December 1997(1997-12-25) (aged 88) Fleet, Hampshire, United Kingdom
Allegiance	United Kingdom  France
Service/branch	Special Operations Executive French Resistance
Years of service	1943–1945
Rank	Field agent and Radio Operator
Commands held	Wheelwright
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	MBE, Légion d'honneur, Croix de Guerre, Médaille de la Résistance

Yvonne Cormeau, born Beatrice Yvonne Biesterfeld (18 December 1909, Shanghai, China – 25 December 1997, Fleet, Hampshire, England) was a heroine of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War who was the second female radio operator to be sent to France and who talked her way out of arrest by pretending her wireless was an X-ray machine.

Early life

Beatrice Yvonne Biesterfeld was born in 1909 to a Belgian consular official and Scottish mother. She was educated in both Belgium and Scotland. She was living in London when in 1937 she married Charles Edouard Emile Cormeau, a chartered accountant. Her husband enlisted in The Rifle Brigade and in November 1940 he was wounded in France and was sent back to the UK. Shortly afterwards he was killed when their London home was bombed. Her life was saved by a bath which fell over her head and protected her.^[1]

War service and Special Operations Executive

Newly widowed, Yvonne decided to "take her husband's place in the Armed Forces" and she joined the WAAF as an administrator in November 1941 (Service No 2027172).^[2] While serving at RAF Swinderby she answered an appeal on the noticeboard for linguists, and was recruited by SOE and trained as an F Section wireless operator on 15 February 1943. She was promoted to the rank of Flight Officer. Her daughter, Yvette, was only two years old at the time and was placed in a convent of Ursuline nuns in Oxfordshire where she remained until she was five. She volunteered to "do something and save France from the Nazis". She did her SOE training with Yolande Beekman, Cecily Lefort and Noor Inayat Khan. On the night of 22 August 1943 she left RAF Tempsford and was parachuted into St Antoine du Queyret, northeast of Bordeaux; she was given a powder compact by Colonel Maurice Buckmaster before leaving for France.

Her role was to work as courier and wireless operator on the Wheelwright Circuit in Gascony. Cormeau worked on the circuit with George Starr, "Hiliare", who she had known before the War when living in Brussels. Whilst carrying out her secret operations in Occupied France she used the code names "Annette", "Fairy" and "Sarafari". Cormeau sent over 400 transmissions back to London, which was a record for the F Section. She made arrangements for arms and supplies to be dropped for the local Maquis. She assisted in the cutting of the power and telephone lines, resulting in the isolation of the Wehrmacht Group G garrison near Toulouse.

She was almost arrested by the Germans after being betrayed by an agent codenamed Rodolph. However, she continued to operate, despite being confronted by "wanted" posters in her neighbourhood which gave an accurate sketch of her appearance. Her success was possibly owed to the fact that she used car batteries, making it more difficult for the German D/F vans to find her. She was stopped at a German roadblock with Starr; the pair was questioned while a gun was held to their backs. Eventually the Germans accepted her story and ID that she was a district nurse, and she succeeded in passing her wireless equipment off as an X-ray machine. She worked for 13 months and evaded arrest despite some narrow escapes. Whilst operating in France Yvonne was shot in the leg by a German patrol, but managed to escape. The dress she wore on this occasion and the bloodstained briefcase she carried are on permanent display in the Imperial War Museum in London along with her WAAF officer's uniform.^[3]

A year after the end of the war, she was demobilised with the WAAF rank of Flight Officer. She then worked as a translator and in the SOE section at the Foreign Office. She became a linchpin of F Section veterans and arranged their annual Bastille Day dinner.

Honours and decorations

After the war she was appointed MBE, and decorated with the Légion d'honneur, Croix de Guerre, Médaille de la Résistance, and Palmes Academiques.

Postwar

After the war, Yvonne Cormeau and her daughter, Yvette Pitt, were reunited and lived in London. Cormeau was one of the earliest members of the Special Forces Club in London and she was a committee member. She promoted Anglo-French relations.

In her 70s, she married again to James Edgar Farrow, with whom she lived in Derbyshire. He predeceased her. She spent her later years at Tall Pines nursing home, formerly in Gally Hill Road, Fleet, Hampshire. After Yvonne Cormeau-Farrow died, she was survived by her daughter. Her memorial service was attended by representatives from both UK and French governments.

She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1989 when she was surprised by Michael Aspel.

References

• Squadron Leader Beryl E. Escott, Mission Improbable: A salute to the RAF women of SOE in wartime France, London, Patrick Stevens Ltd, 1991; ISBN
• Liane Jones, A Quiet Courage: Women Agents in the French Resistance, London, Transworld Publishers Ltd, 1990; ISBN 0-593-01663-7
• Marcus Binney, The Women Who Lived for Danger: The Women Agents of SOE in the Second World War, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 2002; ISBN 0-340-81840-9
• She was the subject of a 'This is Your Life' programme in November 1988

External links

• Charlotte Gray film website with video interviews with Cormeau
• "Yvonne Cormeau". The Times. 8 January 1998. Retrieved 10 October 2009. 
• Yvonne Cormeau's appearance on This Is Your Life

Notes