Heroism of WW2 spy who broke Dot’s heart
WHEN EastEnders star June Brown appeared on Desert Island Discs last week, she poignantly dedicated a song to her first love.
The actress, who plays Dot in the BBC soap, told host Kirsty Young she had fallen for dashing Belgian Ralph Latimer while the 23-year-old was living with her family in Ipswich – but that he broke her heart by marrying another woman.
Latimer had fled to Britain after escaping his homeland following the German invasion. Now, The Mail on Sunday has tracked down his relatives, and they reveal how he became a fearless war hero who parachuted into Belgium as a member of Churchill’s Secret Army, and was later imprisoned and brutally tortured by the Gestapo.
The agent’s courage earned him the Military Cross, and his glowing citation spoke of how he was ‘devoted to duty and fearlessness in the face of danger’ and ‘betrayed no one’.
Latimer moved to Jersey after a post-war career in pharmaceuticals, and died on the island in 1994.
His daughter Rosa Lia discovered her father’s astonishing story after finding his candid diaries, which also give a fascinating insight into secret operations in occupied Europe. Now 70, Rosa Lia said: ‘He will always be my hero.
‘After the war, my father was very humble about his feats. He came back from Belgium emaciated and traumatised but he never mentioned what he suffered as a result of the torture and ill-treatment.
‘I only found the manuscript after he died. He was so brave. He was the most decorated man on Jersey but he was never pretentious about it. He was such a humble man.’
June was just 13 when Latimer, ten years her senior, arrived at the family home in 1940 after her father found him living in digs and felt sorry for him. The actress, 90, told Radio 4: ‘I was very much in love with him. He told his mother he was going to marry me when I was 16.’
But Latimer was called up in February 1941, joining the Royal Army Medical Corps. The couple exchanged letters using the pet names Raoul and Juanita, but contact dwindled, leaving June disconsolate. In 1942, she wrote to him asking to meet at Piccadilly Circus, but he never turned up. Latimer had, in fact, joined the Special Operations Executive, which conducted clandestine operations in occupied Europe. His first mission was to be parachuted into Belgium to equip resistance groups with arms, helping recover weapons dropped into the countryside by the British. Against orders, he handed explosives to an underground group, which blew up a signal box at Liege, delaying trains between Belgium and Germany. He was recalled to London, where he met his wife Rosa, but hated the city’s ‘continuous parties’ and was itching to get back to war.
He finally returned to Belgium in March 1944, to set up a communications network for the Belgian Secret Army, but was captured by the Gestapo two months later. Despite being tortured, Latimer did not break. He was loaded on to a train to Germany but escaped after railway workers blew up the tracks.
When Brussels was liberated, Latimer returned to Britain and married Rosa in January 1945.