Lieutenant Andrée Raymonde BORREL

Andrée Borrel was born 18 November 1919, one of the two daughters of Louis Jean Borrel and Eugénie Marie Françoise Borrel (née Fayolles).  Her birth took place in the Hôpital Beaujon in the prestigious rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, but the family was a working class one, living in the Paris suburb of Bécon-les-Bruyeres in the Courbevoie (Seine) municipality.  She grew up as an ‘outdoors’ girl and her sister Léone described her as a tomboy (un garçon manqué) who loved physical and boyish pursuits such as hiking, climbing and cycling.  Though her father died when Andrée was only 11 years old, the loss served to develop the young girl’s independent nature.

 

Andrée went to school in Bécon-les-Bruyères until the age of 14 when she left to work with the modiste ‘Maryse’ in Becon-les-Bruyères where she learned the trade for 18 months.  At the age of 16 she changed professionby going to work as a shop assistant for a central-Paris bakers, the Boulangerie Pujo, in the avenue Kléber.  She then switched to another shop assistant role, with a store in the rue Amsterdam, so that she could guarantee Sundays off in order to indulge in her great passion for cycling.  She remained there until October 1939, living in the boulevard Aristide Briand (14e arrondissement), until she gave in her resignation, shortly after the outbreak of war.  This was in order to accompany her widowed mother who, for health reasons, wished to move to the south of France and they therefore together first went to Toulon where they had friends.

 

At the end of October 1939 Andrée volunteered via the Red Cross in Toulon to serve in the ‘Association des Dames de France’.  She undertook a crash course in elementary nursing, obtained her diploma in January 1940 and the following month was sent as a nurse. ................. [Remainder of case study is complete - contact author for further details].


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