Pearl Cornioley was a British secret agent who played a significant role in the French Resistance during World War II. She commanded Resistance troops that killed up to 1,000 enemy soldiers and supervised the surrender of 18,000 German soldiers. She joined the Special Operations Executive and parachuted into France in 1943, posing as a street saleswoman to organize the Resistance. She is widely regarded as one of the foremost war heroines of World War II and chafed at the inequality of honors awarded after the war. She died in France at the age of 93.
Pearl Cornioley née Witherington was a British secret agent who played an important role in the French Resistance during World War II. It is estimated that the Resistance troops she commanded killed up to 1,000 enemy soldiers, and by the end of the war, she personally supervised the surrender of 18,000 German soldiers. This brave and fiery woman, who went by the code name “Marie,” was given many awards and accolades during her lifetime.
She was born to British parents in 1914, a “child of the 1914-1918 war,” as she described herself, in France. She lived in France until the outbreak of war, at which point her family moved to Great Britain and she found work as a secretary. Pearl Cornioley, however, wanted to see action in the war, and she ended up joining the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a British agency designed to train people who could assist resistance movements in German-occupied countries.
In 1943, Pearl Cornioley parachuted into France, where she posed as a harmless street saleswoman as she organized the Resistance. She served as a major communication route between Britain and the French Resistance, helping to arm the Resistance, organize troops and oppose the Germans. The men under Cornioley’s command regularly annoyed each other, disrupting German convoys, sabotaging German trains, and engaging in other acts of rebellion. After the war, she returned to England, eventually marrying a member of the French Resistance. She died in France at the age of 93.
Pearl Cornioley is widely regarded today as one of the foremost war heroines of World War II. Many people are surprised to learn of his role in the war, as information about his involvement only became widely available in 1995, with the release of his autobiography, and again in the early 21st century, when the British government declassified documents about his activities in World War II.
Throughout her life, Pearl Cornioley chafed at the inequality of honors awarded after the war, with men receiving military honors while women who fought bravely during the war were often ignored. She famously rejected the civilian version of one of Britain’s highest honours, Member of the British Empire, arguing that there was “nothing civilian” about what she had done. It wasn’t until 2006 that she received her parachute wings, in a highly publicized event.
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