Talks This Saturday Reveal Wartime School For Special Agents At Wanborough Manor

Published on: 4 Jun, 2018
Updated on: 4 Jun, 2018

It’s no secret – there are fascinating illustrated talks this Saturday (June 9) all about the training of wartime special agents at Wanborough Manor.

The talks will be by Carol Brown (formerly of Guildford Museum), and Paul McCue, a Witley-based author on special forces and clandestine warfare. They will be taking place in the historic Grant Barn at Wanborough, believed to have also been used by S.O.E during the Second World War.

Talks on Wanborough Manor, and its role as a wartime school for special agents take place on Saturday, June 9, at Wanborough Barn.

The event is from 11am to 4pm. Tickets cost £20 and include a light lunch and refreshments.

It follows hard on the heels of BBC 2’s recent reality TV series, Secret Agent Selection – WW2 and some of the volunteers in the programme will be at Wanborough, having become enthused with the wartime details of their historical, real-life, counterparts who served with S.O.E.

2018 marks the 75th anniversary of the transition of the preliminary assessment process for trainee special agents of Britain’s wartime Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.)

In 1943 this assessment process moved from Special Training School (STS) 5, Wanborough Manor, to STS 7, Winterfold, Cranleigh.

Saturday’s event is the first part in a two-part programme of illustrated presentations and exhibitions by The Secret WW2 Learning Network. It therefore looks at S.O.E’s preliminary school at Wanborough Manor  – designed to identify potential agents to carry out Prime Minister Churchill’s order to “set Europe ablaze!”.

Diana Rowden in WAAF uniform.

Two who trained there included were Diana Rowden, who was executed in Natzweiler concentration camp, came from a Surrey family background and is commemorated in Tilford church.

Brian Stonehouse.

And Brian Stonehouse, later held in concentration camps, but fortunate to survive the war.

Advance booking is essential. Call 07851 409839 or send an email to info.sww2@gmail.com

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