She was French born
But served as an agent for the SOE
In June 1943 “Jacqueline”
Was shot in the back of the head
While she and a fellow agent
While being pursued by the Germans.
She was taken to Blois hospital
Where they found her wound was not fatal
And transferred her to Hôpital de la Pitié in Paris.
Though still gravely ill, in late September
She was moved to Fresnes prison,
Before being forwarded in July the following year
To the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women.
And then in March 1945 she arrived at
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
In the middle of a typhus epidemic
The camp was liberated by the Allies a month later
She was hospitalised but died late in April.
Yvonne was recommended for the Military Cross,
But she was ineligible as it was not awarded to women
She was later made an MBE,
Honorary because she was not a British citizen
She is commemorated by an obelisk at Romorantin-Lanthenay,
Her name is also recorded on the Brookwood Memorial
In Surrey as one of 3,500
“To whom war denied a known and honoured grave”
And on the Valençay SOE Memorial “Roll of Honour”
In the French town of Valençay.
And also, on the FANY memorial
At St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge
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