Phyllis Latour, the final remaining female secret agent who served in Sir Winston Churchill’s “secret army” in France, has died at the age of 102. Recently declassified files give us a vivid look at her life as a spy for the British during World War Two, as a member of the Special Operations Executive (SOE).
Phyllis went by the codename Genevieve and was an agent sending vital intelligence back to London while working with the French resistance in German-occupied western France. The French resistance disrupted German forces as they fought the Allied advance by sabotaging key transport links. For this, they needed supplies and aerial support, which were dropped by air from Britain. Genevieve’s messages gave RAF bombers precise locations to bomb and where to drop equipment.
Working behind enemy lines was very dangerous, and Phyllis had many close shaves. One time, while she was typing out a message, two German soldiers came into the building. She calmly closed up the wireless set, pretending it was a case that she was packing, and told the soldiers that she had scarlet fever. They left quickly.
Born in South Africa, Phyllis was orphaned at the age of four and went to live with an uncle in Jadotville in the Belgian Congo. Phyllis spoke English, French, some Arabic, Swahili, and Kikuyu. Before she became an agent, Phyllis joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force as a balloon operator in November 1941. Towards the end of the war, Phyllis received an MBE for her service as a spy.
Phyllis never spoke of her wartime career during her lifetime. She moved to New Zealand after marrying and lived there until her passing. France awarded her the Croix de Guerre, and in 2014 she received the Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur, the country’s highest decoration
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