Tote bag featuring Pearl Witherington Cornioley (1914-2008), the amazing British SEO agent who became an expert in guerrilla warfare and who was so effective that the Nazis put a price of one million francs on her head.
The bag is hand printed on both sides, with one side giving a brief description of her life and achievements and the other side displaying a picture and a quote. It is made of 100 % cotton, measures 42 by 38 cm and is machine-washable with cold water.
One side of the bag reads:
Cecile Pearl Witherington Cornioley (1914-2008) was an agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the organisation for espionage for Britain during World War II.
Born and raised in France to British parents, Witherington was employed at the British embassy in Paris when the Germans invaded in 1940, but managed to evacuate her mother and sisters and eventually arrived in London in 1941, where she found work with the Air Ministry. Determined to fight back against the Nazis, Witherington joined the SOE in 1943 and after just three weeks training, was parachuted into France to help the French Resistance. There, she was reunited with her French fiancé, Henri Cornioley, who had joined the resistance as well.
Witherington initially worked as a courier delivering messages to radio operators and traveled around under the guise of being a cosmetics saleswoman. But after a few months, when her main radio operator was captured by the Gestapo - the official secret police of Nazi Germany - she took over. She lived in the woods and organised drops of supplies and explosives for the French Resistance fighters (Maquis). These were groups of men and women, which later grew into active resistance groups, who had escaped deportation to Germany to provide forced labor by Vichy France's Forced labor service.
Witherington became an expert in guerrilla warfare and went from being in charge of around 20 resistance fighters to 3,500 and by 1944, had assumed command of a large network of Maquis in the Loire valley, in central/middle France.
In the lead up to D-Day - the invasion of Normandy by the Allied forces in 1944, Witherington's network blew up 800 stretches of railway lines and supply routes in an effort to disrupt the Germans as much as possible, and as the Allies advanced, 18.000 Germans gave themselves up to her network. She was so effective that the Germans put a price of one million francs on her head.
After the war, Witherington was recommended for the Military Cross, but was at the time - shockingly - considered ineligible because she was a woman, and was instead offered a civil MBE (Member of the British Empire). She rejected the medal with an icy note pointing out that 'there was nothing remotely ‘civil’ about what I did. I didn't sit behind a desk all day.'
She later accepted a military MBE and was finally awarded the title of Commander of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004. Witherington was also a recipient of the Légion d’honneur, the highest French order of merit for military and civil bravery.
Witherington was the driving force behind the creation of a monument situated on a roundabout at Valençay, in central France in 1991, commemorating the 104 SOE agents who died during world war II.
In 1997, Witherington’s autobiography, ‘Pauline’ was published and another book telling her story ‘Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent’ was published in 2013.
She died in 2008, aged 93, in a retirement home in the Loire Valley of France.
A bag that is not only handy but also a great way to spread information and educate people in a playful way and - obviously - using a cotton bag instead of plastic is also good for the environment.
Besides this it is a bag that does good on every level: 10 percent of the profit from the sale of each bag is donated to one of the four charities listed below. All these charities defend girls and women's rights and support or protect the independence of women.
1. Terre des femmes in Germany
2. Freedom charity in the UK
3. The AHA Foundation in the USA
4. Femmes for Freedom in the Netherlands
The whole set of 6 different anti Nazi spies for £ 70 instead of £ 84, so one bag free!
Free postage anywhere or come and have a look and pick them up from our market shop in Bricklane in east London. For the address and opening times please check our face-book page at pacwomanproductions.com
Let’s honour and bring back the memory of some real heroines by acknowledging their achievements and not forget what they fought for!
For whole sale enquiries please contact us and we'll be in touch asap.
Thanks for your interest!