The Woman who Funded the BAA’s Ochs Scholarship: A Short Account

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank the following for their help in various ways: Oliver Clutton-Brock; Marcia Dover at the National Trust; Edward Harris at the RCIN, London; Christian Herbst at the Jewish Museum, Hohenems; John Howes; Laurence Keen OBE; Gerry McArdle and Jackie Meechan at the Ministry of Defence Army Personnel Centre (Historical Disclosures), Glasgow; Iris van Meer at GaHetNA, the Hague; David Pickup; Chris Power MBE; the Historical FOI Team at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Milton Keynes; Nigel West.

Notes

1. E. Stourton, Cruel Crossing: Escaping Hitler across the Pyrenees (London 2014), 133.

2. Some details of the Ochs family genealogy exist at www.hohenemsgenealogie.at/en/; George Ochs’s date of death and Paris residency are given in his entry on the England and Wales National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations 1858–1966).

3. F. Reitlinger, A diplomat’s memoir of 1870 (London 1915).

4. See M. Frostick, A History of the Monte Carlo Rally (London 1963) for an idea of the early years of the Rally.

5. O. Clutton-Brock, RAF Evaders: The Comprehensive Story of Thousands of Escapees and their Escape Lines in Western Europe, 1940–1945 (London 2009), xxvi. More generally, see A. Humbert, Résistance: Memoirs of Occupied France, trans. B. Mellor (London 2008).

6. R. Kedward, La Vie en Bleu: France and the French since 1900 (London 2005), 253, 263–67; and Stourton, Cruel Crossing (as n. 1), 107.

7. M. R. D. Foot, SOE in France: an Account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France 1940–1944 (London 1966), 144, 424.

8. A. Dessing, Tulpen voor Wilhelmina: De geschiedenis van de Engelandvaarders (Amsterdam 2004), 17.

9. Clutton Brock, RAF Evaders (as n. 5), 64.

10. W. Mackenzie, The Secret History of SOE: The Special Operations Executive 1940–1945 (London 2000), 323.

11. Most of these details are provided by lists of correspondence registered 1941–42, held at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office: K11781/K10656/9/248; K10674/K7979/9/248; K3005/45/248; K7522/K9523/45/248. Two other files remain closed. (Crown Copyright: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/).

12. The SS Batory’s December journey is mentioned in http://www.conscript-heroes.com/Art18-The-Big-Party-960.htm. A young Dutchman, Cornelis Drooglever Fortuyn, later to become a British secret agent who was dropped into the Netherlands, and who died at Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, was also on board; see http://www.wo2slachtoffers.nl/bio/52887/Drooglever-Fortuyn-Cornelis.htm.

13. Details of Maud’s wartime and post-war military service courtesy of the MOD Army Personnel Centre, Glasgow.

14. D. Stafford, Britain and European Resistance 1940–1945: A Survey of the Special Operations Executive, with Documents (London and Basingstoke 1980), 57; and http://www.coleshillhouse.com/specialdutiesbranch/special-duties-branch-overview.php.

15. J. G. Beevor, SOE: Recollections and Reflections 1940–1945 (London 1981), 55.

16. S. McKay, The Secret Listeners: The Men and Women Posted Across the World to Intercept the German Codes for Bletchley Park (London 2012), chapters 1 and 2.

17. Mackenzie, The Secret History of SOE (as n. 10), 238–39, 736–44.

18. Cited in K. A. Merrick, Flights of the Forgotten: Special Duties Operations in World War Two (London 1989), 54. Merrick uses the term ‘Special Duties’ for the squadrons (138 and 161) allocated to the SOE. See also Mackenzie, The Secret History of SOE (as n. 10), 365–66.

19. R. Marshall, All the King’s Men (London 1988/2012 electronic edition), 107, 329.

20. Foot, SOE in France (as n. 7), 46–53; and McKay, The Secret Listeners (as n. 16), 10.

21. A box file in GaHetNA, the Dutch National Archives, [Justitie/Londens Archief, access number 2.09.06, inventory number 12977] contains sixteen documents that deal with Hans Cramer’s wartime journey and arrival in the UK.

22. J-C. Bonnin, Les passagers clandestins dans le Cher, particularités de Vierzon, in Journée-débat La ligne de démarcation (1940–1944): Histoire et témoignages (Tours 2010), 4. archives.cg37.fr/UploadFile/GED/Colloque_ligne_demarcation/1352737445.pdf

23. Dessing, Tulpen voor Wilhelmina (as n. 8), 81, 121.

24. Colonel Pinto’s summary, written in January 1943, is the most substantial of the sixteen documents at GaHetNA (see n. 21).

25. Foot, SOE in France (as n. 7), 98; and Clutton Brock, RAF Evaders (as n. 5), 68.

26. Dessing, Tulpen voor Wilhelmina (as n. 8), 302–03.

27. R. Parker, The Common Stream (London 1975).