Cornioley, Pearl

▪ 2009

Cecile Pearl Witherington 

      British wartime agent

born June 24, 1914, Paris, France

died Feb. 24, 2008, Loire Valley, France

as an operative of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), commanded a network of French Resistance forces during World War II. After her British expatriate parents returned to England in 1940, Pearl Witherington worked for the British Air Ministry until June 1943, when she joined the SOE. The following September she parachuted into occupied France under the code name Pauline, and by May 1944 she was overseeing some 3,000 Resistance fighters engaged in guerrilla warfare against German troops, who reportedly offered a reward of 1 million francs for her capture. In October 1944 she returned to England and married her longtime French fiancé and fellow Resistance member, Henri Cornioley. After the war she was deemed ineligible for a Military Cross for bravery because she was a woman, but she refused to accept a civilian MBE. The official snub was finally rectified 60 years later when she was made CBE (2004) and awarded (2006) her parachute wings by the Royal Air Force. She was also a member of the French Legion of Honour.

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