Real life Rigby is WWII heroine..

A REAL-LIFE Eleanor Rigby about to be buried in a council grave with no family to mourn her has been revealed as a Secret Army heroine from World War II who survived torture by the Gestapo.

Real life Rigby is WWII heroine | The Sun |News

 

I think this is disgusting.
"A daring woman who worked as a British spy during the Second World War has died alone in her flat and could be buried unmourned.
Eileen Nearne had hardly any visitors to her home over the past two decades before she was found dead after suffering a heart attack at the age of 89.
It is understood she has no surviving family, and no-one has been found to pay for the war hero’s funeral."
Tragedy of the female WWII spy who died alone with no-one to pay for her funeral | Mail Online

 

In a circumstance like this,should the British Legion become involved?Is it not one of the reason's it's there?

 

Got to agree with both of you. IMHO the least HM Government could do is pay the cost of a simple service. I'm sure the local British Legion would help if they knew about it.

 

Definitely earns alot more than is given. Weird how people that gave so
much can be so easily forgotten...

"A spokesman for Torbay Council said it was looking into possibility of burying her alongside her medals."

Let´s hope nobody is going to dig the grave though...

 

from todays mail.

Forgotten: The first floor flat on the Georgian crescent in Torquay where Eileen Nearne lived out her final days


Read more: Tragedy of WWII spy Eileen Nearne who escaped Gestapo but died alone | Mail Online

 

Here's a welcome update-
"The daring British Second World War spy who died alone in her flat earlier this month will receive an all-expenses-paid funeral following public outcry that she was to be cremated unmourned."
Tragedy of WWII spy Eileen Nearne who escaped Gestapo but died alone | Mail Online

 

Yeah, it made the news over here too, the link on my local paper went to the Mirror.

A British spy tortured by the Nazis in the Second World War is to be buried in a council grave with no family to mourn her.

Brave Eileen Nearne MBE, escaped the clutches of the Gestapo and SS three times in occupied France, where she served undercover.

She has now been discovered dead from a heart attack in her tiny flat aged 89 and officials have been unable to trace anyone to pay for her funeral.

Neighbours in Torquay, Devon, described Eileen as a recluse who never had any visitors.


Goto:

Brave hero spy Eileen Nearne to be buried in a council grave - mirror.co.uk

That was sad that she died alone with no family around. May she gain the honors in death she was denied in life.

 

I posted an update from the Mirror on the thread Ray had started in the Memories and Obit section. Perhaps we should merge these?

 

That makes sense, and fine by me clint..

 

Fine by me too, Clint.

 

"I am very touched to hear that the Royal British Legion and the Armed Forces are keen to honour my aunt's significant contribution to the war effort.
"Aunt Eileen was extremely modest and highly courageous, having been tortured by the Gestapo during the war."

BBC News - Niece pays tribute to WWII heroine who died in Devon

 

A heroine World War II spy dubbed 'Eleanor Rigby' after she died alone with no-one to pay for her funeral struggled with money because her pension was stopped by the Government, it emerged today.

Read more: Forgotten WWII spy Eileen Nearne died penniless because her British pension was halted without explanation | Mail Online

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...The-truth-British-heroine-died-forgotten.html


Traumatic past: Eileen Nearne, second right at the front, at the unveiling of a plaque at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...ish-heroine-died-forgotten.html#ixzz104ME77Lq

 

Hundreds of mourners are expected at the funeral of a World War II heroine whose work as a British spy only became known after her death.

BBC News - Funeral of former spy Eileen Nearne to take place

R.I.P.

 

More details are coming to light on the tragic life of World War II heroine Eileen Nearne, MBE.

Her funeral on 21 September 2010 was to have been a quiet affair organised by Torbay Council, but the emergence of Eileen's courage and bravery has ensured a heroine's send-off.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39297233/ns/world_news-europe/

 

Funeral fit for a heroine: Town turns out to pay respects to WWII spy who died forgotten and alone

Read more: Eileen Nearne funeral: Mourners gather for British spy's memorial | Mail Online

 

"LONDON — After she died earlier this month, a frail 89-year-old alone in a flat in the British seaside town of Torquay, Eileen Nearne, her body undiscovered for several days, was listed by local officials as a candidate for what is known in Britain as a council burial, or what in the past was known as a pauper’s grave.

"But after the police looked through her possessions, including a Croix de Guerre medal awarded to her by the French government after World War II, the obscurity Ms. Nearne had cultivated for decades began to slip away.

"Known to her neighbors as an insistently private woman who loved cats and revealed almost nothing about her past, she has emerged as a heroine in the tortured story of Nazi-occupied France, one of the secret agents who helped prepare the French resistance for the D-Day landings in June 1944."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/world/europe/22nearne.html?_r=1&hp

 

Watch BBC Spotlight's report of Eileen Nearne's funeral

BBC - Files reveal bravery of WWII spy Eileen Nearne


http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/devon/hi/people_and_places/newsid_9135000/9135198.stm

Extract...
In 1942, Eileen and her sister were issued with British passports at the British Consul in Grenoble. The two young women made their way to London via Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Gibraltar and Glasgow, while the rest of the family remained in Grenoble, despite the German invasion of the country.
Both applied for work at the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and were trained and employed as undercover spies - their ability to speak fluent French being a much-needed skill.
The fresh documents, released at the National Archives in London on 29 October 2010, include codes, and operational reports by Miss Nearne.
There is also correspondence from her colleagues in Paris, who sent word back to London about Eileen's arrest.
The message, dated 26 July 1944, says: "From Arnaud: ROSE arrested 22nd about 11 o'clock at her work...by 17 Gestapo in 7 cars."
Miss Nearne's own report into her arrest, incarceration, and subsequent escape, details how the Gestapo stormed her hideaway just after she had sent a coded message.
She told them she joined a French organisation and that she had met her chief in a coffee shop.
During her interrogation, she gave them misinformation about colleagues despite being tortured: "They put me in a cold bath and tried to make me speak but I stuck to my story...they then took me back to interrogate me again. The chief of the Gestapo said he would give me a last chance. I stuck to the same story."