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

H. Gilbert

H. Gilbert

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
J. A. Carswell

J. A. Carswell

J. Lyons & Co. Ltd. staff member who died in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
A. Hammond

A. Hammond

J. Lyons & Co. Ltd. staff member who died in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Gurkha soldier
War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Able Seaman John Stephen Edward Greenland

Able Seaman John Stephen Edward Greenland

John Stephen Edward Greenland was born on 21 January 1921 the youngest of the three children of Frank Harold Greenland (1875-1930) and Alice Elizabeth Greenland née Chapman (1896-1974). His birth w...

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW2
1 memorial

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St Swithin's church, London Stone

St Swithin's church, London Stone

Of medieval origin, the church was destroyed by the Great Fire of London, and rebuilt to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. It was badly damaged by bombing during WW2, and the remains were demoli...

Building, Religion

2 memorials
Bloomsbury Group

Bloomsbury Group

An influential group of artists and writers who were friends during the first half of the 20th century. Our picture shows: Auberon Duckworth; Duncan Grant; Julian Bell; Leonard Woolf, and front: Vi...

Group, Art, Literature, Seriously Famous

3 memorials
Coram's Fields

Coram's Fields

The memorial at the entrance to these fields tells how this playground came into existence. It is the only public space in London where adults are not allowed without children.

Place, Children, Gardens / Agriculture

3 memorials
Eleanor Harvey

Eleanor Harvey

Eleanor Harvey was born on 2 September 1907 in Merton, Surrey, (now the London Borough of Merton), the second of the three daughters of William George Harvey (b.1874) and Winifred Harvey née Gunner...

Person, Children, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Rotherhithe Tunnel

Rotherhithe Tunnel

Road tunnel crossing under the River Thames, connecting Rotherhithe to the Ratcliff district of Limehouse. Designed by Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice, it was constructed using both a tunnelling 'shield' a...

Building, Engineering, Transport

7 memorials