The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation, formed in 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton. Its purpose was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements. It ceased operation in 1946. This memorial commemorates its service and the lives of the agents lost.It depicts Violette Szabo, a French/British agent who was captured, tortured, sent to a concentration camp and then executed.