THE TOP SECRET
HISTORY OF
ROUGHWOOD PARK

I recently gave a talk on the pictorial history of Chalfont St Giles. Two large estates within the parish had been requisitioned by the War Department in 1941. When I asked if anyone knew Latimer House had been used in the war effort, about half the hands were raised.

"How about Roughwood Park?" I then asked.

Only one hand went up in an audience of almost two hundred. Which did not surprise me in the least. Roughwood Park was one of the most top secret locations in Britain's arsenal. In official correspondence, it was only ever referred to as "STS42" — Special Training School 42. It was utilised by the Special Operations Executive, the precursor to the SAS, for training espionage agents. Spooks. Spies. Cloaked in secrecy, it was a venue frequently visited by Winston Churchill himself.

Many of its "students" were women. They were committed to the cause, ruthless and spoke French fluently. STS42 was a "finishing school" for those volunteers who successfully passed through previous tests of fitness, intelligence, strength and competence. It was the graduation academy for SOE's F Section (France). On successful completion, graduates were parachuted into France, with a remit to "set it ablaze."

Agents sent to Roughwood experienced a brutal curriculum designed to keep them alive behind enemy lines:

• Advanced small arms handling and silent killing techniques
• Bomb-making and tactical demolitions using plastic explosives
• Close-quarters combat and jujitsu
• Map-reading, night navigation, and the use of concealment devices
• Exacting physical conditioning

The estate also served a more psychological function. It was used as an "Operational Holding School" where agents could recuperate between missions or receive "top-up" training.

Jacqueline Nearne, who spent two years operating as a courier in occupied France, was sent to Roughwood in 1944 to recover her health while acting as a training consultant.

Noor Inayat Khan was an Indian princess, born in Moscow but who had lived in France during the 1930s. She was a wireless operator, a crucial role very much at the central nervous system of the resistance. It was rigged with danger and threat to life. As long as they were on the mission, the operator had to be quick on their feet, live in disguise, and have fast exit routes wherever they were working — which included having aerials hung up disguised as washing lines.

Noor was sent to France with a new identity: Jeanne-Marie Renier, a professional children's nurse. The Germans were desperate to apprehend her. They offered a bounty and eventually a scoundrel informed on her. She was executed in Dachau with three other women SOE agents in 1944.

Her story was told in the 2019 film A Call to Spy. Jacqueline Nearne's story was also captured in a 1950 film, Now It Can Be Told.

Looking at Roughwood Park today, it is hard to imagine such a sleepy hollow in the Chilterns could be a centre for espionage, sabotage, subterfuge and slaughter. It made a significant contribution to the Resistance and the eventual defeat of Hitler.