HEROINES OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE – MARIA KRYSTYNA JANINA SKARBEK, OBE, GM, CdeG

She was born a Pole

But served as an agent for

The Special Operations Executive

Her service as a British agent

Predated the creation of the SOE

She was the first female British agent

To serve in the field and was to become

The longest-serving female agent of the war

She began in 1941 as Christine Granville

She served in France, Poland

As well as the Middle East

Spymaster Vera Atkins described her

As “very brave, very attractive,

But a loner and a law unto herself.”

She was often characterised in terms

Like Britain's “most glamorous spy”

Or “Churchill's favourite spy”

But she was fearless in the field

After the war she was awarded

A George Medal, an OBE

And a Croix de Guerre

She died in Earls Court, London

On June 15th, 1952

When she was stabbed to death

By an obsessed and spurned suitor