Mary Katherine Herbert (1903-1983)

DOSSIER:Mary Catherine Herbert was born on 1 Oct 1903 in Ireland. In November 1944 she married Herbert de Baissac with whom she had a daughter, Claudine. Mary died at her cottage in Frant, England on 23 Jan 1983.

ALSO KNOWN AS:

Claudine

Maureen

Madame Marie Louise Vernier

At the outbreak of war, Mary worked in the British Embassy in Warsaw and then as a civilian translator in the Air Ministry in London. She joined the WAAF at RAF Innsworth on 19 September 1941 as a General Duties and Intelligence Clerk. She was released at her own request from the WAAF so she could join the SOE in March 1942.

Following her training, she landed by felucca off the south coast of France, having travelled from Plymouth via Gibraltar on 30 Oct 1942. On arrival in France she travelled to Bordeaux to act as a courier to the Scientist circuit, using the code name Claudine. She travelled by bicycle and train, liasing with the different groups within Scientist, carrying messages, acting as a 'post-box for the members of the circuit and also seeking out safe houses and potential recruits. Additionally she helped to arrange and was present at parachute drops.

While working in France, she met fellow SOE Agent in the Scientist circuit, Claude de Baissac with whom she had a daughter in December 1943. The child, named Claudine after her mother's code name, was born by caesarian section at a private nursing home in La Valence, a suburb of Bordeaux. She then moved into a flat looked after by fellow SOE Agent Lisé de Baissac (Claude's sister).

On 18 Feb 1944, Mary was arrested in Poitiers. The Gestapo had found out that the flat was maintained by an SOE agent, and initially thought that Mary was Lisé de Baissac. She was separated from her baby daughter and the child was looked after by the French Social Services. Mary created a cover story for herself that she was Madame Marie Louise Vernier, a Frenchwoman from Egypt; she protested her innocence saying she knew nothing of the woman who owned it and had only been there a few weeks.

During the few months in prison, the Germans learned nothing from her but she endured the harsh conditions. She was released at Easter 1944 and, after arguing with the authorities at the orphanage that she was wrongly arrested, reunited with her child. They hid in a small country house near Poitiers until the end of the war. In September 1944 she was reunited with Claude and his sister Lisé de Baissac.