Revealed: Churchill’s undercover agent was Bradford teacher – The Yorkshire Post says

THE undercover agent Harry Rée is typical of a generation who were so loyal to Winston Churchill that they took their wartime secrets to the grave.
By YP Comment
Published 15th Jul 2020, 11:35 BST
The undercover agent agent Harry Rée's story can finally be told.The undercover agent agent Harry Rée's story can finally be told.
The undercover agent agent Harry Rée's story can finally be told.

Yet it is only now that the daring, and double life, of the Bradford Grammar School languages teacher can be told after being painstakingly pieced together by his son Jonathan.

In an account where the truth is stranger than fiction, Mr Rée had led his relatives to believe that he had been on a ‘glorious summer holiday’ to France. In fact he was an agent in Churchill’s Special Operations Executive and had been parachuted into France in 1943 after discreet training in sabotage.

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As well as devising a system for the smuggling of messages to London, he directed operations with the French Resistance to stifle the Nazi occupiers. Let’s hope a new book charting Mr Rée’s extraordinary life behind enemy lines is the precursor to a permanent tribute to this unknown and unlikely Yorkshire hero.

Wartime agents like Yorkshire's Harry Ree never spoke about their work for Winston Churchill.Wartime agents like Yorkshire's Harry Ree never spoke about their work for Winston Churchill.
Wartime agents like Yorkshire's Harry Ree never spoke about their work for Winston Churchill.

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James Mitchinson

Editor

Related topics:Yorkshire PostBradfordYorkshireFrance

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