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Yvonne Rudellat

Yvonne Claire Rudellat, MBE, (née Cerneau; 11 January 1897 – 23 or 24 April 1945), code name Jacqueline, was an agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in World War II. The purpose of SOE in occupied France was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance. SOE agents allied themselves with French Resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.

Rudellat was the first female SOE-trained agent to go to France (although preceded by Virginia Hall who as an American entered Vichy France legally as a journalist). She worked as a courier for the Prosper or Physician network (or circuit) from August 1942 until June 1943, when she was captured by the Germans and imprisoned. She died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp a few days after the liberation of the camp by the allies.

The official historian of the SOE, M.R.D. Foot, described Rudellat as "cheerful" and "fluffy" and with "steady nerves and good sense." As a courier she traveled widely around the Loire river valley to deliver messages and to participate in sabotage operations against facilities important to the Germans. She was "fast becoming a demolition expert" at the time of her capture. Provided by Wikipedia