Harry Rée
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Harry Alfred Rée (15 October 1914 - 17 May 1991) was a British educationist and wartime member of the Special Operations Executive.
Harry Rée was born in England, the son of Dr Alfred Rée, a chemist who was descended from an illustrious Danish Jewish family, and Lavinia Dimmick, the American-born great granddaughter of Eleuthère Irénée du Pont [1]. He was educated at Shrewsbury School, Cambridge University, and the Institute of Education, University of London. In 1937 he became a language master at Bradford Grammar School, and later at Beckenham and Penge County School for Boys. In 1940 he married Hetty, daughter of Eardley Vine, of Beaconsfield[2].
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[edit] Wartime exploits
After the outbreak of the Second World War, Rée was conscripted into the army, and in 1940 volunteered for the Special Operations Executive, receiving a captaincy and the codename "César". In April 1943 he was parachuted to France and joined the Acrobat Network around Montbéliard. Later he became active in the Stockbroker Network around Belfort.
Rée spoke against RAF bombing in France, arguing it was turning French public opinion against the Allies. He suggested that SOE agents could organize effective sabotage of factories on the ground. He organized destruction of the Peugeot factory at Sochaux by convincing the local director that he could avoid further bombing if he would sabotage his own factories. On 5 November 1943 Rée organized a decoy attack against compressors and transformers at Sochaux to transfer the blame.
Germans tried to capture Rée, who escaped a Feldgendarmerie group after he had been shot four times and, according to his own account, had to swim over a river and crawl through a nearby forest. He managed to reach Switzerland and still keep some contact with his organization. In May 1944 he was replaced by an American officer, E.F. Floege, and returned to Britain. He starred in the movie Now it Can be Told (aka School for Danger), produced by the RAF Film Unit, which told the story of SOE's activities in France.
[edit] Educational career
After the war, Rée became headmaster of Watford Grammar School for Boys. He was the first professor of educational studies at the University of York [3] 1961-1974, and was an advocate of comprehensive education. He was active in the Society for the Promotion of Education Reform and the Programme for Reform in Secondary Education.
In 1974 he left the university and went to Woodberry Down Comprehensive School in Hackney, where he became an ordinary classroom teacher. He retired in 1980. Rée continued to advocate close links between schools of the European Community and the repeal of the 1988 Education Act.
Rée wrote a biography of the educator and inventor of Village Colleges, Henry Morris : Extraordinary: The Life and Achievements of Henry Morris (Longman, 1973) and produced a compilation of Morris' talks and articles, The Henry Morris Collection (Cambridge University Press, 1984)[4]. He died in 1991.
[edit] References
- ^ "Hartvig Philip Rée og hans slægt", Josef Fischer, Copenhagen, 1912
- ^ "Forthcoming marriages", The Times, 18 April 1940
- ^ The University of York - 1960s
- ^ Henry Morris - infed.org
[edit] Further Reading
- The Secret History of SOE, pages 582-583 & 600), William MacKenzie
[edit] Primary Sources
The personal papers and recordings of Harry Rée are held by the Institute of Education Archives[1]. A list of these papers can be found on the online catalogue.
