My Unsung Hero is Eileen Nearne. I chose her because I don’t think many people, or practically anyone, would risk their life to help out people the way she did. The thing that mainly drew my attention to her is how generous and selfless she was. Eileen decided to use her language skills to help out others, and none of what she did really benefited herself. 

Eileen was born in London, but her family quickly moved to France where she learned to speak French fluently. She then flew to England before the Nazi invasion. Once she got to England she started working for a Special Operations Executive, a British wartime cloak-and-dagger agency, where she learned to operate a shortwave radio. She then parachuted into France with a radio transmitter in a suitcase and started spying under the name Agent Rose. Eileen created a network called the Wizard, which helped her pass messages back and forth between the Allies to share important information that would help the war effort. She was putting herself at risk by doing this, so she had to be smart and would move to different places frequently. In the end her efforts helped the Allies win the war. 

In my project I painted Eileen sending messages during a war and putting her life at risk. My piece shows how brave Eileen is because she is hiding behind a rock sending messages and right behind her a plane has been shot down. 

I think Eileen’s story shows how even if you are not doing something for yourself, you can still help out others. I hope when people hear her story they realize that they should be less selfish and help out people more. While Eileen was facing WWII, you can still be inspired by her selflessness and try to do small acts of kindness for others.