Pearl Cornioley

Feb 27 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

Pearl Cornioley

WHEN she stepped ashore in Liverpool, there was a gentle beauty in her eyes, but the Girl Guides had given her a toughness of spirit and sinew, not entirely suited to her job as a shorthand/typist.

Before long, with her beret tilted in the classic-style, she was leading 1,500 Resist- ance fighters in occupied France, where the Nazis offered a million francs for her capture – such transformations normally happen to young women in romantic novels.

Little, though, had been normal in the life of Pearl Witherington, the eldest of four daughters born to an expatriate couple in Paris.

Her father “succumbed to the drink”, as the genteel expression has it, and she was supporting the family with her salary as a short- hand/ typist at the British Embassy, when Germany invaded.

Although passionate in her loyalty to France, she guided the family to England through Spain to Gibraltar, where they caught a ship to Liverpool in July, 1941.

A spell as a clerical worker in the Air Ministry did not satisfy her desire to be doing something useful and she enlisted with the Special Operations Executive (SOE), where she was trained in the use of explosives and fire- arms and outdoor survival, finding that her experiences as a Girl Guide were “very helpful”.

But her war really began in September, 1943, when she was dropped from an RAF Halifax, near Chateauroux, Loire, and was codenamed Pauline by a very active Resistance group, whose importance in the 300 square miles between Toulouse and Orleans grew as D-Day approached.

During this time, she re- newed her friendship with Henri Cornioley. As a fluent French speaker, Pearl was an ideal courier, delivering coded messages from Eng- land to the Resistance groups – on one occasion cycling 50 miles before crossing a freezing river, carrying the bicycle over her head.

With Henri and others, she blew up German supply lines and ambushed patrols. After the death of Maurice Southgate, Pearl assumed command of the group, codenamed Wrestler.

In one skirmish, 32 of them were taken hostage by the Germans, but Henri and Pearl, who hid in a wheat field, escaped separately, reuniting in England, where they married. They settled in Paris and had a daughter. Pearl was a secretary and Henri a chemist. In 1945, she was appointed a military MBE and in 2004 the CBE.

Pearl Cornioley, Resistance fighter; born June 24, 1914, died February 23, 2008.