Pearl Witherington

Witherington mostly operated in Indre Department, south of Paris. Cecile Pearl Witherington Cornioley, (24 June 1914 – 24 February 2008), code names Marie and Pauline, was an agent in France for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers. SOE agents allied themselves with French Resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.

Witherington was born in Paris to British parents. She parachuted into France in September 1943 as a courier for the SOE Stationer Network and, in May 1944, became head of the SOE Wrestler Network in the Indre region in central France. She was the only woman to lead an SOE network and associated resistance groups, called maquis, in France.

After the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, Witherington's network, comprising about 2,000 maquisard fighters, was especially efficient in sabotaging railroads and telephone lines. The official historian of the SOE, M.R.D. Foot, characterized the Wrestler network as "highly successful" and Witherington herself as "incomparable." She was a recipient of the Order of the British Empire from the United Kingdom and the Legion of Honor and Croix de Guerre from France.

Early life Cecile Pearl Witherington was born and raised in France by British expatriate parents, and was a British subject. Her father had been born into money but drank most of it away, and Pearl often had to negotiate with his creditors to save them from destitution. She was employed at the British embassy in Paris and engaged to Henri Cornioley (1910–1999) when the Germans invaded France in May 1940.

Second World War Courier for the SOE Witherington escaped from occupied France with her mother and three sisters in December 1940. The family arrived in London in July 1941 where she found work with the Air Ministry, specifically the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. Determined to fight back against the German occupation of France, and wanting a more active role in the fight, she joined Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE) on 8 June 1943. In training she emerged as the "best shot" the service had ever seen. Despite her prowess with firearms, she never carried a gun during her mission in France.

Pearl Winterington, a trained British courier, took over and ran an active maquis group of some two thousand men in Berry with gallantry and distinction after the Gestapo arrested her organiser. She was strongly recommended for an MC [Military Cross] for which women were held ineligible; and instead received a civil MBE, which she returned, observing that she had done nothing civil. There she joined Maurice Southgate, leader of the SOE Stationer Network and Jacqueline Nearne, Southgate's courier, and reunited with her fiancé. Over the next eight months, posing as a cosmetics saleswoman, Witherington also worked as a courier.

An exhausted Jacqueline Nearne returned to Great Britain in April 1944 and the Gestapo arrested Southgate on 1 May 1944 and deported him to Buchenwald concentration camp. Witherington was fortunate not to be arrested with him. Witherington and Southgate's wireless operator, Amédée Maingard were with Southgate the day he was arrested, but Witherington said that Maingard was worn out and that he needed to take the afternoon off. While the two of them were picnicking, Southgate was arrested—survival as an SOE agent was often due to luck. Witherington was furious. She said that after the surrender ceremony the Americans showered the German soldiers with "oranges, chocolate, the whole works. But that's an old story, you know, soldiers were welcoming other soldiers. We weren't soldiers."

On 21 September 1944, Witherington and the British personnel under her command were ordered to return to the United Kingdom, their mission completed. She returned with an "extraordinary—and probably unique—breakdown of her expenditure in the field: amounting to several million francs, it listed in meticulous detail every expenditure, even including entries for purchases of cigarettes and razor blades." and instead was offered a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Civil Division. Witherington rejected the medal with an icy note pointing out that "there was nothing remotely 'civil' about what I did. I didn't sit behind a desk all day". She accepted a military MBE and in 2004 was advanced to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) during Elizabeth II's state visit to France. She was also a recipient of the Legion of Honour, Croix de Guerre and Resistance Medal.

In April 2006, age 92, after a six-decade wait, Witherington was awarded her parachute wings, which she considered a greater honour than either the MBE or the CBE. She had completed three training parachute jumps, with the fourth operational. "But the chaps did four training jumps, and the fifth was operational – and you only got your wings after a total of five jumps", Witherington said. "So I was not entitled – and for 63 years I have been moaning to anybody who would listen because I thought it was an injustice."

Private life Witherington married Henri Cornioley in Kensington Register Office on 26 October 1944; they had a daughter, Claire. In the same article, Witherington is quoted as having previously refuted any connection to the fictional Charlotte Gray: "There was a job to be done. I didn't put my life at risk just so I could be with Henri."

At the end of his novel Jackdaws, author Ken Follett included a quote about Witherington's accomplishments from M.R.D. Foot's book SOE in France. Author Carole Seymour-Jones wrote a biography, ''She Landed By Moonlight: The Story of Secret Agent Pearl Witherington: the 'real Charlotte Gray''' (2013).