HEROINES OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE - MARY KATHERINE HERBERT

Mary was also known as Maureen

She was born in Ireland

But served as an agent for the SOE

Thirty-nine years old when she joined

And was Codenamed “Claudine”

Herbert travelled from Gibraltar by felucca

And was landed in Vichy France

On the 31st of October 1942

In order to operate as a courier

For the Scientist network

After the Prosper network in Paris

Was betrayed to the Germans in June 1943,

As Scientist had links with Prosper

They also dismantled Scientist as well

Those SOE Agent who weren’t arrested

Had to go into hiding, including Herbert,

Some of the group escaped to England

Leaving Mary Herbert behind

By which time she was pregnant

Herbert had hidden her pregnancy

Until she learned that the father

Was not coming back to Bordeaux

Forced to cease all clandestine activities

She found a nursing home in Bordeaux

And in early December 1943

She had a daughter named Claudine

With her daughter she left the nursing home

And moved into an apartment in Poitiers

That SOE agent Lise de Baissac had rented

When the child was three months old

Mary was arrested by the Germans because

They believed her to be Lise de Baissac

The Germans imprisoned Herbert,

Leaving the baby with her maid

When she was released after two months

The search for her child was a long one

But she finally found her in a convent

She was the only SOE agent to give birth

To a child while in France during the war

Following liberation she remained in France

And was awarded a Croix de Guerre

In 1960. she bought a house in Frant, Sussex

And gave French lessons for a living.

She died with her daughter at her side

Of pneumonia on January 23^rd 1983