Noreen Riols: Tributes to WW2 spy school veteran

One of the last-surviving veterans of the World War Two Special Operations Executive (SOE) has been remembered following her death at the age of 98.

Noreen Riols was posted to the SOE'S school at Beaulieu in the New Forest, where agents were trained to carry out espionage missions behind enemy lines.

One of her roles was to act as a so-called honey trap in Bournemouth hotels to see whether the trainee spies would spill their secrets.

Dame Menna Rawlings, British Ambassador to France, where Ms Riols lived, said she was an "incredibly impressive woman" who led a "life well-lived".

In 1944, at the age of 18, Ms Riols applied to join the Women's Royal Naval Service, which she said appealed to her "because the hat looked most seductive".

However, she was sent to the SOE's secret headquarters in Baker Street, London, because of her proficiency in French.

She worked "passing on messages", before being posted to the Beaulieu Estate where the SOE conducted final training.

Future agents were schooled in one of 11 buildings, each for a different country, and taught to carry out sabotage, assassinations and other missions.

Ms Riols recalled: "I think they chose ones who they suspected might be liable to talk and that's where I came in.

"If it was a fine evening with the moon shining... I managed to winkle them out on to the terrace to look at the sea.

"It could get quite sentimental and then of course when their tongues are loosened, I'm afraid they could talk."

Those who revealed anything of their roles in the SOE were barred from service.

Ms Riols recalled: "I hated it. I almost prayed that they wouldn't talk... It was awful to have to betray them."

She kept her SOE role secret after the war, never telling her mother who died thinking she worked for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Her friend and former lodger, Paul Harris, only learned the truth when she appeared on a history programme on TV.

The retired Bournemouth vicar said: "I think she was very proud of what she did and once she could talk about it she became very much a figurehead for speaking for that generation.

"I will always remember Noreen as a fine example of someone who was prepared to deal with the most serious things in life, be a woman of faith and yet keep a wonderful sense of humour."

Dame Menna Rawlings added: "She was just this incredible, sharp, sparkly, twinkly, humble, but incredibly impressive woman, even well into her 90s.

"She went round schools and talked about the role of the SOE and the role of women and how important it was to her to tell that story to new generations.

"If ever there was a life well-lived, it was Noreen's."

After joining the BBC World Service after the war, Ms Riols married and moved to France.

She became a writer, whose works include her wartime memoir The Secret Ministry of Ag. and Fish.

Awarded the Légion d'Honneur in 2014, she was also made MBE in 2023, only a year before her death.

Her funeral will be held on Monday near her home in Marly-le-Roi, west of Paris.

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