Commemorating five SOE agents in Romorantin-Lanthenay / film screening & dinner in Valençay

The traditional prelude to each year's Valençay events on May 6th is a more modest ceremony the previous evening at the Monument aux Morts in nearby Romorantin-Lanthenay. This commemorates five SOE agents who were all connected with this area - Section Officer Muriel Byck, Captain John Macalister, Captain Stanisław Makowski, Captain Frank Pickersgill and Ensign Yvonne Rudellat.

Wreaths were laid by the Mayor of Romorantin-Lanthenay, and Libre Résistance; and individual poppy crosses for each of the SOE agents were placed on the memorial by representatives of The Secret WW2 Learning Network. Meanwhile at the Hotel Relais du Moulin in Valençay, the Charity's co-founder Martyn Cox was introducing a special screening of "Robert Et Les Ombres" - the 2005 resistance/SOE documentary made by French director Jean-Marie Barrère which had been inspired by his late grandfather's experiences in the Maquis. (Click HERE to watch the trailer and HERE for an excerpt.)

Later that evening - and also at the Hotel Relais du Moulin - an informal dinner organised by Libre Résistance was attended by its members, plus representatives and friends of agents' families and the fifty past and present members of the FANY who'd be attending the official events the next day.