Sometimes in life there are serendipitous moments when you find yourself in just the right place at the right time. A few weeks ago I went to Winchelsea to see the play SOE about Vera Atkins and Noor Inayat Khan. I sat in front of a delightful resident of Winchelsea, Robbie Gooders, who told me that she had been a dear friend of Vera right up to her death in 2002. I felt that we had been meant to meet.
Vera was well-known and liked in the town of Winchelsea and lived two doors down from Robbie and John Gooders. They were friends for seven years and Robbie had some delightful stories to tell. Vera loved small intimate drinks soirees and was a stickler for time. If you were invited for 6pm she liked you to arrive as the clock chimed.
One evening, Robbie and John had been slightly delayed and their phone rang. It was Vera enquiring if they were on their way as she said, “You know I can’t have my first cigarette until my first guests arrive.” She smoked those chic Balkan Sobraines which were a traditional mixture of rich Virginia, Latakia and rare Yenidje tobacco.
When she was awarded the CBE, the Gooders threw her a party in Winchelsea to celebrate. John stood up and talked about her wonderful work in the war. When he had finished she said, “John, where did you get all that rubbish from!” She never talked about the war at all to her friends, and it was only through newspaper articles and books that they learnt all about her.
Her “private enterprise”
She called her search for SOE missing agents her ‘private enterprise’, which she began in earnest in 1946. Her journey started when she visited the headquarters of the British Amy of the Rhine. Here she and British lawyers discovered overwhelming evidence of atrocity.
Vera had arrived in Germany with her own evidence of the crimes committed and her mission was to uncover the fate of twelve of her women who had been sent behind enemy lines and were still untraced. Noor was one of these women with whom Vera had had a special relationship.
Vera was undaunted by the task she faced: she felt responsible and that she owed it to the women to discover what had become of them. By early autumn, Vera had interrogated several concentration camp commandants including the notorious Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz.
Vera was a remarkable woman and constantly promoted the heroism of her agents whose suffering would never have emerged had Vera not sought out the truth.
Image Credits: Robbie Gooders .
Shortly after moving to Winchelsea in 1997, we received a note through the door from our neighbour, Vera Atkins, telling us that the fence facing the passageway between our gardens was in need of replacing and could we arrange and pay to have this work done? Our house was in need of so much repair, this note was the last thing we needed. Having checked that the fence was not our responsibility – how could it be? – I told her this politely but firmly. After that, she was as good as gold. I think this was a test of character, that we had somehow passed.
Vera was a formidable and impressive woman, with her mane of white hair. Her story is such a remarkable one, compared to those of mayfly celebrities nowadays. Come to think of it, we were surrounded by illustrious people then, with Robert Nicholson, creator of Nicholson guides our neighbour on the other side, and of course John Gooders, illustrious ornithologist, just a few doors up. Thank you for the article Kt, and best wishes to Robbie.