Pearl Witherington, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Pearl Witherington

SOE leader

Date of Birth: 24-Jun-1914

Place of Birth: Paris, Île-de-France, France

Date of Death: 24-Feb-2008

Profession: spy, autobiographer, French Resistance fighter

Nationality: France

Zodiac Sign: Cancer

Cecile Pearl Witherington Cornioley CBE (24 June 1914 – 24 February 2008), code names Marie and Pauline was an agent for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II.
Witherington was born in Paris to British parents.
She parachuted into France in September 1943 as a courier for the SOE Stationer Network and in May 1944 became head of the SOE Wrestler Network in the Indre region in central France.
She was the only woman to lead an SOE network and associated resistance groups, called maquis, in France.Witherington's network, comprising about 2,000 maquisard fighters after the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, was especially efficient in sabotaging railroads and telephone lines.
The official historian of the SOE, M.R.D.
Foot, characterized the Wrestler network as "highly successful." She was a recipient of the Order of the British Empire from the United Kingdom and the Legion of Honor and Croix de Guerre from France.