Born in England, Jacqueline Nearne's parents moved to France with the rest of the family in the 1920s. When war broke out, she and her sister, Didi, escaped through Spain to England. Recruited into the Special Operations Executive, they were both trained as secret agents, Jacqueline as a courier. Flown into France in early 1943, she helped Maurice Southgate on a top secret mission with the Resistance. Brought back to England, she spent much of the rest of her life working for the United Nations.