Vera Atkins

Ian Flemming said of her: “In the real world of spies, ‘she’ was the boss.” She once said: “It’s easy to look brave when things go your way. Civilians display true courage by getting on with their daily lives between nights of terror bombing. They do it from a sense of duty. Duty is the mother of courage. Real courage is in facing impossible odds.” Her legacy is one of perseverance and bravery.

Her name was Vera Atkins.

The name Vera Atkins is largely unknown to the general public but during the Second World War she was a British Intelligence officer and a key SOE (Special Operations Executive). Vera orchestrated covert missions and managed a network of spies. With a life ‘operated’ in the shadows, her life was cloaked in secrecy. Vera Atkins' courage during her missions could not be matched.

Vera was born Vera May Rosenberg in 1908, in Romania, to a family of Jewish descent. Max and Hilda Rosenberg were her parents and Vera had two brothers. Her father Max was a successful businessman which meant that Vera grew up in a comfortable and cosmopolitan home.

She was well-educated, attending Sorbonne (the University of Paris) and a finishing school at Lausanne, after which Vera attended a secretarial college in London.

Unfortunately, Max’s business went bankrupt in 1932 and he died the following year. Even though the family were identified as Jewish, they were not devout Jews, so when the ugly face of antisemitism started to show itself, the family emphasized their English and German heritage.

Vera grew up in a privileged but constrained world, ‘a place where identity was something to be carefully managed.’ No wonder she became such a good spy!

During her life, Vera never married but lived in a flat with her mother in England, all the while working for SOE and up until her mother, Hilda, died in 1947.

In 1937, Vera changed her surname to Atkins, which is a more English-sounding variation of her mother’s maiden name, Etkins. When Vera changed her name, she started a whole new way of life.

Vera started her ‘new life’ before the start of the Second World War, when she was recruited by the Canadian spymaster Sir William Stephenson, of British Security Co-ordination. Her mission was a fact-finding one, travelling across Europe, to supply intelligence on the rising threat of Nazi Germany for Winston Churchill.

The fact that Vera was of Jewish descent did not stop her from going to Berlin, the very ‘heart’ of the Nazi beast. Rather, this showed just how brave, bold and determined our heroine was to help out in the coming war. Vera knew what danger she was in but nothing was going to stop her from getting the information needed.

Vera’s first ‘spy mission’ was to go to Poland. With Colin Gubbins, another operative, she arrived in Poland just six days before the start of World War Two. Their mission was to pose as civilians and to use whatever means necessary to get the cryptologists out of Poland and to safety. These cryptologists had been passing on vital information with regards to decrypting the German Enigma machine.

Vera and Colin were obstructed at almost every turn, until they discovered that the Polish Cipher Bureau had already evacuated the cryptographers to Romania. The time was not wasted though, because Vera and Colin obtained important information about the Nazi regime, before they too were rushed out of Poland to Romania to avoid the crossfire of the Nazi belligerence (or aggression).

In 1941, Vera joined the French section of the SOE as a secretary. In 1944, she was commissioned a Flight Officer in the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force).

In this same year, Vera was naturalised as a British subject, and she was later appointed F Section’s intelligence officer.

“Being a woman has great advantages if you know how to play the thing right. I believe that all the girls, the women who went out, had the same feeling. They were not as suspect as men; they had very subtle minds when it came to talking their way out of situations, they had many more cover stories. Also, they’re very conscientious. They were wonderful wireless operators and very cool and courageous,” Vera Atkins.

Vera was soon promoted to the role of intelligence officer, reporting directly to section head Colonel Maurice Buckmaster for the F Section (or French Section). Her duties included recruiting, training, and managing SOE agents who were sent to Nazi-occupied Europe, primarily France. An important part of Vera’s ‘job’ was assisting agents trapped behind enemy lines.

The agents under Vera’s care were women, who all served in various capacities, from couriers to radio operators to actual spies. Vera became their “Spymistress”. Vera took them under her wing as each one reported directly to her.

One way in which Vera looked after her ladies was by crafting finely penned letters on their behalf, which were sent to the agent's families when their absence was called for. When an agent was sent on a mission, Vera would quickly write a letter to her parents, informing them of some ‘made-up reason’ for their daughter's absence.

Vera would accompany her agents to the airfield when they left for their missions. Her firm smile and kind wave was very often the last friendly gesture they saw, as they looked out of the airplane window. Both Vera and her agents knew that the future was uncertain.

Buckmaster trusted Vera for her integrity, exceptional organizational skills and good memory. She was 5ft 9in tall and typically wore a tailored skirt-suit. Vera was a lifelong smoker.

After the liberation of France and the allied victory in Europe, Vera traveled to France and Germany determined to find out what had happened to her missing agents during World War Two. Fifty-one agents from F Section were unaccounted for. At first, Vera received little support from Whitehall, but once the atrocities of the Nazi regime came out, ‘official support’ was given to her.

It didn’t matter to Vera ‘how’ the agents perished, as far as she was concerned each agent was killed in action and Vera made sure their deaths were recorded this way. Vera wanted the bravery and heroism of her agents to be recognized. As a result each agent was awarded the prestigious George Cross. To Vera, who was herself a battle-hardened spy, these matters of honour and distinction were important. It was important that these women should be recognized for the missions they had given their lives for.

Leaving the armed forces in 1947, Vera embarked on a job working as an office manager for the UNESCO in 1948, (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).She stayed at this job until her retirement in 1961.

Once retired, Vera used her free time making sure that the memories of the women agents of F Section were kept alive and remembered. These women had given their lives for their countries and Vera made sure they would be remembered with plaques and memorials.

Vera Atkins died on June 4th, 2000. She was 92 years of age.

The first half of her life was incredibly ‘eventful’ whilst the second half was incredibly quiet.

Vera’s life inspires us. She ‘chose’ to live her life as a spy and “Spymistress” during the Second World War, which was incredibly brave for a Jewish woman. Her care for the women agents under her shows how much Vera respected their sacrifice. Vera is another heroine during World War Two and we are humbled by her story of courage, bravery and self-sacrifice.

“Very few dared to go to the places that she went, and fewer still lived to tell the tale.”

“Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on, “Vera Atkins.