Madden, Elaine Marie, 1923-2012
Elaine Marie Madden aka Meeus, aka Iomgen (7 May 1923 – 2012)[1] was a Belgian-born British agent of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War.[2][3] She was born in Poperinghe, Belgium and attended the British Memorial School in Ypres. She died in 2012 in Pont-Saint-Esprit, France.[4] At the age of 17, Elaine was engaged to Belgian officer Edgar Callant.[7] However, her life in Belgium was disrupted when the Second World War spread to the country with the German Invasion of France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Together with her 19 year old Aunt, Simone Duponselle, she set off for the coast where the pair took part in the Dunkirk Evacuation. After arriving in Britain Elaine found work as a clerk for the British Relay Wireless Company while lodging at a flat near Fleet Street in London. Her nights were spent with the Women's Voluntary Service (WVS) assisting Air Raid Precautions (ARP) personnel searching bombed out buildings for survivors during the London Blitz. This work led her to study for her Red Cross certificates in Home Nursing and First Aid as she wanted to be of more practical assistance to casualties. At the start of 1944 Elaine was twenty and living in Bayswater with a flatmate, Susan. Initially Elaine was called up for service with the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). However, with three languages and her knowledge of Belgium she felt she could be of greater service. Elaine mentioned her desire to be of greater service to an American officer who took the flatmates to lunch from time to time. He arranged a meeting for her at the American Embassy where a man was recruiting personnel for 'unspecified secret operations'. As she was British he said he would have to clear it with them in case they wanted to recruit her. The British did want her and after meeting with "some people in south London" she was recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE). There she became a member of the Belgian section.[5][6]
After being vetted she was sent to Lillywhites department store in Piccadilly to collect her First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) uniform. The FANY were the traditional cover for female SOE agents. In April 1944 she went to the Students' Assessment Board (SAB) in Cranleigh, Surrey. There she was given the cover name of Elaine Meeus (she was also known as Imogen and Alice) with different names again on her false papers. After undergoing further training Elaine parachuted back into Belgium in August 1944, one of only two women parachutists sent to the country. She was in Brussels on 3 September when the city was liberated and joined the celebrations After SOE, Elaine volunteered for the Special Allied Airborne Reconnaissance Force (SAARF). With SAARF she was sent to the Nazi Concentration Camps to find surviving SOE agents, Belgian political prisoners and resistance workers. Her mission took her to Buchenwald, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen and Flossenberg. In her search of the camps she found only two survivors.[5]
