Odette Hallowes, GC

Odette Hallowes, GC

Born Odette Marie Céline Brailly in France.  Married an Englishman, Sansom, in 1931 and moved to England.  He enlisted in 1940 and she in 1942 with Special Forces of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry ...

Person, Espionage, France

War served, WW2
1 memorial
Richard Hughes (journalist)

Richard Hughes (journalist)

Richard Joseph Hughes CBE was an Australian journalist who spent much of his life in the Far East as correspondent for The Times and other publications. Generally considered to be a British spy and...

Person, Espionage, Journalism / Publishing, Australia, China/Hong Kong

1 memorial
Noor Inayat Khan

Noor Inayat Khan

WW2 spy and member of the French resistance.  A descendant of the 18th century south Indian ruler Tipu Sultan, Khan was a follower of the Sufi faith and believed in non-violence. Born Moscow to pa...

Person, Espionage, France, Russia

War dead, WW2
4 memorials
Hester Leggatt

Hester Leggatt

Hester May Murray Leggatt was a vital contributor to MI5's 1943 Operation Mincemeat - see there for the full story. Born in India, her family brought her back to the UK before WW1.  She attended T...

Person, Espionage

1 memorial
Leopold Marks

Leopold Marks

Jewish writer, screenwriter, and cryptographer. Leopold (Leo) Samuel Marks, MBE, was Chief of Codes at Special Operations Executive (SOE) in WW2. He was a key trainer of secret agents sent to defea...

Person, Espionage

1 memorial
Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe

Playwright and poet, for definite. Spy? Atheist? Homosexual? Shakespeare? Baptized on 26th February at St George's Church, Canterbury. Educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His plays inclu...

Person, Espionage, Poetry, Theatre

3 memorials
Operation Mincemeat

Operation Mincemeat

Operation Mincemeat was a successful WW2 British deception operation to disguise the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily. British intelligence obtained an unwanted body and took it to Hackney Mortuary w...

Event, Armed Forces, Espionage

2 memorials
Ensign Eliane Sophie Plewman, Croix de Guerre

Ensign Eliane Sophie Plewman, Croix de Guerre

Elaine Sophie Browne-Bartroli was born on 6 December 1917 in Marseille, France, the daughter of Eugene Henry Browne and Elsa Francesca Browne née Bartroli. In addition to the information shown on ...

Person, Espionage, Execution, France, Germany

War dead, WW2
1 memorial
Special Operations Executive (SOE)

Special Operations Executive (SOE)

Spies, basically (but see below), working for the UK in WW2. Formed by Churchill and variously known as "Churchill's Secret Army", "The Baker Street Irregulars", the Pythonesque "Ministry of Ungent...

Group, Armed Forces, Espionage, France, Germany

10 memorials
Violette Szabo, GC, CdeG

Violette Szabo, GC, CdeG

British secret agent in WW2. Born in Paris as Violette Bushell of a French mother and English father who met in WW1. With 4 brothers she was a bit of a tomboy. From Violette Szabo Museum "The Bushe...

Person, Espionage, Execution, France

War dead, WW2
6 memorials
2 more subjects