Jean Argles, who has died aged 97, served in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Fany) during the second world war, as a code and cipher officer for the Special Operations Executive (SOE). At the age of 18, she was promoted to be shift leader in the SOE headquarters in Baker Street, London. Later, during postings to Egypt and Italy, she deciphered communications from partisan rebels fighting in Greece and Yugoslavia.
It was a family contact who tipped Jean off about a possible role in the Fany, a small, elite uniformed female service established in 1907, which made a name for itself in the first world war and resisted full integration with the Auxiliary Territorial Service (the ATS, the female army) in the second.
