Grandmothers, Landladies & Teenage Girls: Women in Britain’s Secret Resistance

By Andrew Chatterton, author of Britain’s Secret Defences | 7 min read

Secret underground bunkers, patrols of 6-8 men highly trained in sabotage, guerrilla warfare and assassination, and a life expectancy of just two weeks. The role of the Auxiliary Units is, at last, becoming better known.

The Auxiliary Units have done much to help change our perception of Britain’s defences in the Second World War. They were not Dad’s Army, but rather a highly trained, highly secret, and highly ruthless group, ready to do anything to slow down the German invasion.

However, the focus on the Auxiliary Units, a group entirely made up of men, has meant that the extraordinary role that women played, in the various secret groups making up what is now known as the British Resistance, has been somewhat ignored. They were prominent across these other groups and would have played a hugely critical and dangerous role had the Germans come.

A Brat on a Horse was Unlikely to be Suspected of Anything

The Special Duties Branch (SDB) were ‘ordinary’ civilians who would have, in the event of a German invasion, stayed in their village or town and spied on the invading army. Obviously, the men recruited into the Auxiliary Units (young, fit men in reserved occupation) would have caught the attention of the German troops and were likely to have been collared rather quickly. However, a grandmother, a mother with a pram, a landlady standing outside of her pub, or a teenage girl on a horse, could have easily stayed and watched the Wermacht pass through.

What the Germans didn’t know was that these women were highly trained in recognising German insignia, weapons, numbers, regiments, vehicles, the direction of travel etc. They would have written this information in basic code on a piece of edible paper and left it at a disguised dead-letter drop. Runners would then pick-up the message and take it along to the next drop. These dead-letter drops were often ingenious, ranging from a simple OXO tin on a windowsill, a disguised brick in a wall, or a false, hollow gate bolt.

One of the civilians involved in the SDB was Joyce Harrison, who lived in Hockley, Essex. With her husband in the RAF, she was determined to do her bit too. She was recruited and soon discovered that her role was as a runner. Her dead-letter drop was a fake tree stump with a revolving top. The message was slipped inside a split tennis ball which was then placed in the fake stump. The last runner in the line would deliver the message to a civilian wireless operator, whose wireless sets were often located in the place where the operator worked (vicars had sets in alters, publicans in the roof of their pubs, doctors in their surgeries, and so on).

The women of SDB were recruited in vulnerable coastal counties in the UK. Jill Holman, a teenager in Aylsham, Norfolk, was recruited by Colonel Collings, who thought,

“a brat on a horse was unlikely to be suspected of anything”.

Take it to the Grave: The Official Secrets Act

We know that there were hundreds of civilian women in the SDB and yet we know details of relatively few. As they signed the Official Secrets Act, a vast majority went to the grave without telling a soul. Indeed, Elsie Rees (née Jones) worked as a solicitor’s clerk in Monmouthshire. Described as a very intelligent and astute woman, she married an Indian Army officer in 1942 and lived a quiet life until her death in 2003. It was only then that the true nature of Elsie’s wartime role became apparent.

Relatives going through her belongings found paperwork relating to her time in the SDB as a spy/observer. It included the stand-down letter confirming that no public recognition could be given, as well as another piece of correspondence ensuring that she returned all equipment and learning materials. She had mentioned none of this to any of her close family or friends and went to the grave with no recognition.

Another group of women who played a critical role in SDB were some special members of the ATS (the women’s branch of the British army). In 1941, Beatrice Temple, the niece of the Archbishop of Canterbury, was brought into the SDB ATS to recruit and manage this secret group. She needed to find trustworthy, determined women with clear voices to work on wireless sets. In the event of an invasion, the civilian wireless operators would send the information gathered by observers, unknowingly, to these ATS women, who were in secret bunkers. After that, they would send the info straight to GHQ or local command to make informed timely decisions.

The first interview of the recruitment process took place in the public lounge on the fourth floor of Harrods. From there, and without knowing what they were joining, the women went through a number of processes until they signed the Official Secrets Act. Had the invasion come, they, like their civilian counterparts in SDB, would be on a suicide mission. If the Germans discovered their bunker, the ATS women were to destroy the equipment, after sending one final message, and then either fight to the death or commit suicide. Barbara Culleton, an ATS subaltern, remembers being handed a tin,

“All strictly secured but it was there, just in case. We were told the most horrific stories of what would happen if the Germans did invade. It didn’t sound very pleasant, so maybe it was the best thing to do.”

The Back-Up Plan to the Back-Up Plan

If the worst did happen – Britain was defeated and the members of the Auxiliary Units and SDB dead – another group of highly secret civilians were ready to start operating in a resistance role. We know very little about Section VII, as this SIS (MI6) led group were called. However, what we do know is that women were not just actively recruited in the group, but, unlike any other military or civilian unit in Britain in the Second World War, they were taught combat roles.

Irene Lockley was a teenager in the village of South Milford, near Leeds. Here, she was recruited into a Section VII cell, which also included her father, a cousin, and two other male relatives. Operating out of cave near the village, Irene was taught how to make and use Molotov cocktails, derail trains, use garrottes, and practice unarmed combat. She only told her daughter, Jennifer, over an aperitif in the final years of her life.

The revelation started to make sense of memories from Jennifer’s childhood, particularly one involving an aggressive pots and pans salesman who refused to take no for an answer from Irene in the 1950’s. Jennifer remembers the salesman put his foot in the door. The next moment he was sailing through the air, pots and pans flying everywhere, as Irene performed an unarmed combat move!

Priscilla Ross was 18 in Hornchurch in Essex. She too was trained in unarmed combat and the use of garrottes. Her cell operated out of a graveyard in Hornchurch, with her bunker only reachable by sliding a tombstone to the side and climbing down the uncovered stairs.

Recognition at Last

Since the publication of Britain’s Secret Defences, more information highlighting the role women played in this highly secret group has reached us. Women of all ages and all backgrounds would have played a critical role had the Germans invaded, hiding in plain sight to take advantage of an enemy that underestimated them.

All of the roles were essentially suicidal. Any spy or runner in SDB caught with a message would have been tortured and murdered, as would any caught operating a wireless set. ATS women were actively told to commit suicide if their bunker was found, and any member of Section VII caught in action by the occupying forces would have faced a similar end.

None of these women received any public recognition or even, in most cases, recognition from their families and friends. Now is the time to give them the respect and gratitude they deserve because even though they weren’t called upon,

they were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice without telling a soul.

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