Surrey's Secret War: within a 10 mile (or so) radius of Thursley
- David Young
- Nov 25
- 6 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
After the AGM of Thursley History Society on 20th November 2025, a talk was given by Paul McCue of the Secret WW2 Learning Network. He had previously given a presentation on the Atlantic Wall on Hankley Common earlier in the year.
The talk includes: the Atlantic Wall; Farnham Castle; Dunsfold Aerodrome; Special Operations Executive (SOE); Winterfold; Wanborough Manor; Tyting House; Gorse Hill; and Longmoor Military Railway. Places a little farther afield covered were Stodham Park and Brookwood Military Cemetary
This is a very cut down version of Paul McCue's talk and just provides the main establishments and events of his hour-long and well-received presentation. You can learn more about Paul McCue and the Secret WW2 Learning Network here: https://www.thursleyhistorysociety.org/post/secret-ww2-learning-network
The Atlantic Wall and Hankley Common
This was a far briefer talk about the importance of the Atlantic Wall than was given in the summer, as many of the audience had attended the talk in August 2025, and it concentrated on the French resistance fighter, René Duchez, The talk is well covered here: https://www.thursleyhistorysociety.org/post/atlantic-wall-walk-and-talk-august-14th-2025
One update was to see this photograph of a modified Churchill tank as tested on Hankley Common on a D-Day beach:
Farnham Castle (8 miles)
This building dates back to the 12th Century and was a former residence of the Bishops of Winchester and the Camouflage Development and Training Centre (CD&TC) of the Royal Engineers.
From the Farnham Castle Trust:
In October 1940 a ‘curious collection’ of about 30 men disembarked from the London train at Farnham station. This group contained the first, and perhaps the most illustrious, students of British military camouflage to attend CD&TC. Within their number were professional artists, one of Britain’s leading zoology experts in animal camouflage, architects, theatre stage designers, stained glass designers and even a stage magician.
The team included the Surrealist painter, Roland Penrose
(NB: There is an excellent article about Farnham Castle and its role in WW2 written by Sally Scheffers which can be found in the pdf within this entry on the website:
The courses were for six weeks and turned civilians into military Camouflage Officer officers through a mix of tutoring, experimentation and training exercises in the grounds. The military occupied the west wing and the Bishop (of Guildford) remained in the east wing. They had a workshop in the stables and access to the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), in Farnborough.
Dunsfold Aerodrome (8.5 miles)
Dunsfold had four connections to the 'secret war':
The hugely destructive power of the V-1 rocket bombs (aka 'Doodle Bugs', had to be destroyed. We had to rely on intelligence from our field operatives and the French Resistance to learn the whereabouts of their launching platforms.
An example of such and operation was on the night of 9/10 April 1944 when two black-painted Lysanders landed at Dunsfold, one with two agents of SOE’s F (French) Section: William Savy and Jacqueline Nearne returning from France. Savy had crucial intelligence regarding a huge fuel dump for the Germans’ V-weapons.
Jacqueline Nearne MBE (27 May 1916 – 15 August 1982) was a British secret agent who served with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. Fluent in French and raised largely in France, she became one of the organisation’s most enduring couriers in occupied territory, operating for over a year behind enemy lines.
Special Operations Executive (SOE)
It was established in 1940 and its Charter was "to conduct sabotage and subversion in territories occupied by the Axis powers, and to supply, train and help organise local resistance movement". For security purposes, it was often known as the "Inter-Services Research Bureau“ and its staff referred to it as “the firm” or “the racket” or “la maison”.
Operated in all countries or former countries occupied by or attacked by the Axis forces, except where demarcation lines were agreed with the Soviet Union and United States. It also made use of neutral territory, or made plans and preparations in case neutral countries were attacked by the Axis.
The organisation directly employed or controlled around 30,000 people, including several thousand women.
SOE established Special Training Schools (STS) known as 'Stately 'Omes of England' including:
Winterfold (10miles)
A case study from Winterfold was Lieutenant Nestor Bodson. He was a secret agent of T (Belgian) Section, SOE. Born in 13 April 1921, he grew up in the Liège area of Belgium. He had an austere upbringing and had undertaken a two years’ teacher training course near Spa, Belgium. He came to Winterfold in Feb – Mar 1942 where he was judged to be an intelligent, quick learner, but considered whimsical and touchy, somewhat immature (only 20). He was fit, keen, patriotic and ‘Physically and mentally he is good material’. But security concerns continued because he confided in people and frequently took photographs of his surroundings and fellow trainees. However, he redeemed himself in a ‘honey trap’ at the Regal Cinema, Cranleigh!
He became a W/T radio operator with the code name “Springbok”, and on the night of 27 August 1942 he was parachuted into Belgium for clandestine operations. He appears in The Most Secret List of SOE Agents with personnel file reference HS 9/171/7 and is sometimes recorded with the rank of lieutenant. He was captured soon after landing and was later executed: according to SOE records, he was shot by firing squad in Schaerbeek, Brussels, on 5 December 1942. His name appears on multiple wartime and memorial lists, all showing that he died in German hands while serving as an SOE agent.
Wanborough Manor (6.5miles)
A case study from Wanborough Manor was the extraordinarily brave Flight Officer Yvonne Cormeau. She was born Beatrice Yvonne Biesterfeld on 18 December 1909 and after being educated in Belgium and Scotland, she married Charles Émile Cormeau in 1937; he later joined the Rifle Brigade and was killed during the Blitz, an attack she survived despite serious injury, though she tragically lost the baby she was carrying. She joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in 1941 and was soon recruited into SOE’s F-Section, where she trained as a wireless telegraphy operator. She was parachuted into southwest France near Bordeaux on the night of 22–23 August 1943 and over the next thirteen months she sent more than 400 wireless transmissions - one of the highest totals achieved by any SOE operator -coordinating supply drops, gathering intelligence, and supporting Resistance activity. She frequently operated under extreme danger, at times transmitting for months from the same rural house, once convincing German soldiers at a roadblock that her radio set was an X-ray
machine, and even escaping after being grazed in the leg, managing to save her radio equipment. After the liberation of her area she continued to work until the end of the war, and in the postwar years she worked as a translator for the Foreign Office in the section handling SOE material, remained active in veteran associations, and fostered Anglo-French relations. She received numerous honours for her wartime service, including the MBE (Military), the Légion d’honneur, the Croix de Guerre, and the Médaille de la Résistance. She died in Fleet, Hampshire, in 1997 at the age of eighty-eight.
Tyting House (10 miles)
Tyting House was a 'cooler' facility for rejected agents or those under suspicion. This is an example of a Secret WW2 information board that features Tyting House:
Wormley (4 miles)
Initially a holding school for Belgian agents, later in the war at least 25 Pickaxe agents, SOE trained, were dropped into occupied Europe by the RAF from 1942 to 1944. Pickaxe agents were from the Soviet Union's secret service, the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB.
Longmoor Military Railway (10 miles)
During WW2, the Longmoor Military Railway was a crucial training ground for the Royal Engineers to prepare personnel for railway operations in occupied territories and at home. It served as a logistical hub, using its lines to transport troops, vehicles, and supplies between the Bordon and Longmoor camps. The railway's layout was frequently altered, and it was used for both practical training, such as constructing and deconstructing lines, for transport and for sabotage training.
