Phyliss Latour

Phyliss "Pippa" Latour MBE, was a heroine of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War.

Early life

Latour's father, Philippe, was French and married to Louise, a British citizen living in South Africa, where Phyllis was born in 1921.

WAAF & Special Operations Executive

She moved from South Africa to England and joined the WAAF in November 1941 (Service Number 718483) as a flight mechanic for airframes. Recruited by the SOE, officially joining on 1 November 1943 and was commissioned as an Honorary Section Officer.

She parachuted into Orne, Normandy on 1 May 1944 to operate as part of the Scientist circuit, using the codename Genevieve to work as a wireless operator with the organiser Claude de Baissac and his sister Lisé de Baissac (the courier).^[1] She worked successfully and largely avoiding detection of the Germans, she sent over 135 messages to London, remaining in France until the liberation in August 1944.

Post WWII

After World War II Latour married an engineer with the surname Boyle, and went to live in East Africa.^[2]

Notes

References

• Squadron Leader Beryl E. Escott, Mission Improbable: A salute to the RAF women of SOE in wartime France, London, Patrick Stevens Limited, 1991. ISBN 1-85260-289-9
• Liane Jones, A Quiet Courage: Women Agents in the French Resistance, London, Transworld Publishers Ltd, 1990. ISBN 0-593-01663-7

External links

• A South African Girl in the Special Operations Executive (article by Ross Dix-Peek)