Secret British hero of French Resistance was a peace-loving teacher

THE remarkable story of a schoolmaster who operated as an undercover agent for Churchill’s “secret army” during the Second World War has been uncovered by his son.

Hero Harry Ree was tasked with sabotage and subversion with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and orchestrated a series of daring wartime operations behind enemy lines.

Harry, who died aged 76 in 1991, told his unwitting wife Hetty he was away from home for around a year in 1943 enjoying a “glorious holiday” cycling around France.

The true story only began unravelling in 2016 when Harry’s son Jonathan Ree was contacted by a French soldier keen to track down relatives of the prominent resister.

Jonathan spent the next few years researching his dad’s life and has now released a fascinating book outlining Harry’s time with the SOE between April 1943 and May 1944.

In the early 1940s Harry, a language teacher at Bradford Grammar School and later at Beckenham and Penge County School for Boys, joined the Army – like thousands of other men in their 20s.

Espionage

Prior to that he had registered as a conscientious objector, thus refusing to join the military, and as a university student he signed the Peace Pledge – a commitment to pacifism.

After changing his position and joining the Army, Harry carried out basic training and did some work in military security before he volunteered for the SOE.

The secretive organisation’s purpose was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers.

He parachuted into France in April 1943 and served directly for eight months before being injured in a shooting, and spending the following five months in a Swiss hospital.

During his time in service, Harry devised a system for smuggling messages to London, organised dozens of parachute drops and gave instruction in sabotage techniques.

He also directed operations with the French Resistance against railways, canals, warehouses, electricity supplies and factories.

One of the teacher’s greatest successes was persuading Rodolphe Peugeot, the son of the Peugeot factory owner, to sabotage the family premises at Sochaux, which had been commandeered to make parts for Nazi tanks.

In return Harry persuaded the RAF not to carry out another bombing raid on the factory by making a pact to keep up with regular sabotage operations.

Harry Ree’s remarkable journey from teacher, above, at Bradford Grammar, left, to agent in the French Resistance is revealed in a book by his son