Henri Le Chêne
Henri Le Chêne (1891-?) was a French Special Operations Executive agent during the Second World War. Early life. Henri Le Chêne was born in London in 1891, the son of French parents. In 1922 his parents retired and returned to France. He worked as a hotel proprietor and an administrator in Kenya. World War II. During the German invasion in 1940, Henri, his younger brother Pierre, and his wife Marie-Thérèse left France for England on the last boat leaving from Bayonne. He joined the Special Operations Executive along with Marie-Thérèse, while Pierre joined subsequently. On  22 April 1942 he was landed in France to become organiser of the SPRUCE network in the Lyons area. His wife Marie-Thérèse later joined him as courier. After his first visit to Virginia Hall he decided that Lyons was unsafe and changed his area to Clermont-Ferrand and Périgueux. In December 1942 following the arrest of his some of his network and also his brother Pierre, he decided to return to the UK via the Pyrenees. Too tired to join him, his wife hid in friends' homes and was evacuated by the SOE from Angers on 19 August 1943 . Back in England, she rejoined her husband. Post-war. He and his wife returned to France in 1946 and opened a hotel in Sainte-Menehould in collaboration with his brother Pierre.