53 - Her Finest Hour: Diana Rowden, SOE Agent
The WW2 Podcast
Angus Wallace
4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 15 October 2017
⏱️ 72 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Last year I talked to Greg Lewis about the female agents in the British Special Operations Executive, SOE, who Churchill had tasked with "setting Europe ablaze". In this episode we'll be looking specifically at Diana Rowden who was flown into France in 1943.
Diana spent her early years in the South of France before being sent to Public School in England. At the outbreak of war Diana was living in Paris with her mother. When Paris fell they fled south, but once her mother was safely on a boat back to England, Diana decided to remain in France. For over a year she moved through France avoiding being picked up by the Germans, when it got to "hot" she fled back to Britain.
When she finally became know to SOE she was an obvious fit for an agent to be sent to France. It was a huge risk and only a matter of time before she was picked up, which indeed she was. With four other women she was murdered at Natzweiler Concentration Camp in July 1944. She was 29 years of age.
I'm joined by Gabrielle McDonald-Rothwell.
Gabrielle's book Her Finest Hour: The Heroic Life of Diana Rowden, Wartime Secret Agent takes the reader through Dianna's life".
I didn't realise when I started chatting to Gabrielle but she is married to Geoffrey Rothwell, he flew over 70 missions before being shot down. For patrons and supporters of the podcast I've made available a quick conversation I had with Gabrielle about her husband.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to another World War II podcast last year I talked to Greg Lewis |
| 0:05.2 | about female agents in the British Special Operations Executive |
| 0:09.3 | S.O. E. who Churchill tasked with setting Europe a blaze. |
| 0:14.0 | In this episode we'll be looking specifically at Diana Rowden, who was flown into France in |
| 0:20.0 | 1943. But before we start to all those patrons of the show, if you head over to |
| 0:25.0 | Patreon you'll find Gabriella and I talking about her husband who is now |
| 0:29.4 | 97 and flew missions for EsseUE during the war. |
| 0:34.0 | If you're on the mailing list because you support the show via PayPal, |
| 0:37.2 | you should find the link in your mailbox. |
| 0:39.9 | If you're interested in becoming a patron, |
| 0:41.6 | head over to Patreon.com slash W.W.2 podcast. |
| 0:45.8 | By agreeing to a dollar or so a month, you'll help me find the time to put the show together. |
| 0:51.2 | I'm a one man band so every dollar helps me put more time into the show. |
| 0:56.0 | So that's Patreon.com slash W.W.2 podcast or go to W.W.2 podcast.com and click on donate. So I'm joined by |
| 1:06.4 | Gabrielle's book, Her finest hour, The Heroic Life of Diana Rowden, wartime secret agent, takes the reader through |
| 1:15.8 | Diana's life. Thanks for joining me. We're going to be looking in detail at Diana, but |
| 1:22.1 | before we start on her wartime service can we |
| 1:24.4 | look at her background I suspect many people will wonder who these women of the |
| 1:29.3 | S. O we were I mean that Diana isn't French and she doesn't have a French background so where does a family come from? |
| 1:36.8 | Well Diana came from an illustrious and extended family of army officers, clerks and lawyers including a |
| 1:45.6 | King's Council on her father's side. |
| 1:50.0 | So in official documents that I have seen, they described variously as chaplain, Vika, |
... |
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