File:Dorothy and Evelyn.png

Summary

Among several MI6 files from the early Cold War recently released by the National Archives was this photograph of former Special Operations Executive agent Dorothy Harper and an "Eleanor"-type military automaton, taken by a surveillance team in an unknown city circa 1947. As the SOE was being wound up after the end of the war, Harper is said to have defied orders and prevented an Automaton No. 3 Mk. II*, serial no. 310, from being sold for scrap, but the files contain no further information about either of their fates. While the Eleanors were best known for their roles as secretaries, drivers, switchboard operators and the like, a few units possibly including No. 310 were equipped with radio control, combat programming, and other modifications for field service and parachuted into occupied Europe with SOE teams. Harper is known to have served as a wireless operator behind the lines in occupied France, a crucial and dangerous role, but records on the robots' service in the SOE are scarce.

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