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A prayer for a life well lived !!!

Found this today about her funeral service….a remarkable woman …brave & resourceful. I hold these kind of people in the highest regard. Its hard for any of us here to know the kind of life she had during her operational duties and prisoner of the Germans. Very stressful & difficult I am sure. We owe people like this our deep thanks for the freedoms we enjoy today. I know I took a few moments to do so yesterday. May she rest in peace !

BlueNoser352!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010, 10:002 comments Share
Mourners told of Eileen’s life of wartime bravery

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SHE lived a wartime life of secrecy and extreme danger and died alone in a Torquay flat.

But yesterday Eileen Nearne MBE was given a funeral service that was beamed live to the world on TV.

The contrast could hardly have been more acute.

When the Herald Express first broke the news of Eileen’s death at the age of 89 last week, it was at first thought she had no living relatives.

She was destined for the most basic council-organised funeral with no frills or fanfare.

But after the national spotlight swung on to the story, all that changed.

Yesterday the Church of Our Lady Help of Christians and St Denis in St Marychurch was packed.

Her niece Odile Nearne told the congregation: “She never wanted to speak about what she did during the war and she never wanted to be famous.

“People like her just want to forget and not relive the sufferings.

“Because of what she had been through she wanted to be left in peace. She did many good deeds like collecting for Animals in Distress and helping people in need.

“She was a devoted Roman Catholic and her faith saved her when she was tortured.

“At the same time she was very modest. She was altogether very much loved.”

Military men in uniform sat in the front pews and crowds gathered outside the church.

Torbay Council had to bring in road closures and special parking arrangements to cope with the number of people attending.

Newspaper, radio and TV reporters gathered on the balcony at the rear of the church, and images were transmitted live on satellite news channels.

Civic dignitaries and VIPs were among the congregation at the requiem mass.

During wartime Eileen Nearne had been a member of one of the most clandestine of all organisations.

As a member of the Special Operations Executive — known as Churchill’s Secret Army — she operated deep under cover in occupied France during the 1939-45 war.

She was flown into France to work as a wireless operator, using the names Mademoiselle du Tort, Jacqueline Duterte and Alice Wood. In July 1944 her transmitter was detected and she was arrested.

She was reportedly tortured but managed to convince her captors that she had been sending messages for a businessman, unaware that he was British.

She was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp and then transferred to a forced labour camp in Silesia.

Identities

She escaped from the Germans three times in a year and assumed numerous identities to carry out actions including missions alongside the French Resistance.

In recent years the reclusive Eileen lived alone and rarely talked about her extraordinary life.

She died after suffering a heart attack at her Lisburne Crescent home in Torquay earlier this month.

It was at first thought she had no immediate family, but her niece was then traced in Italy.

She was found living in Tuscany by London-based genealogists Fraser and Fraser.

She said she had been very fond of her aunt, and had visited her often at her Torquay home.

She told reporters she had last seen her aunt six months ago.

At yesterday’s service French Consul General Edouard Braine said: “We are here to show our gratitude to someone to whom we owe the freedom of our country.

“Without efforts like hers, France would not have been liberated.”

Royal British Legion standard bearers from all over Devon were at the service yesterday, along with buglers from the French army and the Royal Marines. A piper from the Plymouth Pipe and Drums band played as the coffin was brought into the church.

Father Jonathan Shaddock said Miss Nearne was a humble, quiet, brave lady and she often came to church to take Catholic communion. “She savoured her story in her own heart — we get to share it today,” he said.

Adrian Stone, chairman of the Special Forces Club, said she joined them in 1982 but resigned in 1992 because they barred dogs from the lounge at their London headquarters.

Eileen Nearne received her MBE in 1946 in recognition of her war service.