Yvonne Cormeau

Yvonne Cormeau, born Beatrice Yvonne Biesterfeld (18 December 1909, Shanghai, China – 25 December 1997, Fleet, Hampshire, England) was a heroine of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War who was the second female radio operator to be sent to France and who talked her way out of arrest by pretending her wireless was an X-ray machine.

Early life

Beatrice Yvonne Biesterfeld was born in 1909 to a Belgian consular official and Scottish mother. She was educated in both Belgium and Scotland. She was living in London when in 1937 she married Charles Edouard Emile Cormeau, a chartered accountant. Her husband enlisted in The Rifle Brigade and in November 1940 he was wounded in France and was sent back to the UK. Shortly afterwards he was killed when their London home was bombed. Her life was saved by a bath which fell over her head and protected her.

War service and Special Operations Executive

Newly widowed, Yvonne decided to "take her husband's place in the Armed Forces" and she joined the WAAF as an administrator in November 1941 (Service No 2027172). While serving at RAF Swinderby she answered an appeal on the noticeboard for linguists, and was recruited by SOE and trained as an F Section wireless operator on 15 February 1943. She was promoted to the rank of Flight Officer. Her daughter, Yvette, was only two years old at the time and was placed in a convent of Ursuline nuns in Oxfordshire where she remained until she was five. She volunteered to "do something and save France from the Nazis". She did her SOE training with Yolande Beekman, Cecily Lefort and Noor Inayat Khan. On the night of 22 August 1943 she left RAF Tempsford and was parachuted into St Antoine du Queyret, northeast of Bordeaux; she was given a powder compact by Colonel Maurice Buckmaster before leaving for France.