TORQUAY, England, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Neighbors in a British seaside resort said they only learned a recluse had been a spy during World War II when police searched her apartment after her death.

Eileen Nearne, 89, was alone in the flat in Torquay when she died, authorities said.


Police found French money, medals and other mementoes of her career with the Special Operations Executive as one of 39 women sent into France during the war. The SOE was commissioned in 1940 to help the war effort through non-military means, including to promote espionage and sabotage behind enemy lines.

"I have known her for about six years and she was very reclusive. We thought she may have been in the French Resistance from rumors but I was very surprised at the extent of her heroism," Steven Cook said.

"You would never have thought it, as she never spoke of it."

Nearne's family lived in France for many years. She and her older sister were in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force when their fluency in French attracted the attention of the SOE.

Nearne was sent into France in 1944. On one occasion she was arrested but convinced Gestapo interrogators she was French and harmless.

She was made a member of the Order of the British Empire for her services.

Nearne moved to Torquay in Devon after her sister died.