Vera Leigh
| Vera Leigh | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Simone |
| Born |
17 March 1903 Leeds, England, UK |
| Died |
6 July 1944 (aged 41) KZ Natzweiler-Struthof, France |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom, France |
| Service/branch | Special Operations Executive, French Resistance |
| Years of service | 1943-1944 |
| Rank | Field agent (Courier) |
| Commands held | Donkeyman, Inventor |
| Awards | King's Commendation for Brave Conduct |
Vera Leigh (born Vera Glass;[1] 17 March 1903 - 6 July 1944) was a member of the French Resistance and a British SOE agent during World War II. In 1944, she was captured by the Germans and executed at Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.
Early life
Vera Leigh was born Vera Glass on 17 March 1903 in Leeds.[1] She was adopted as a baby by H. Eugene Leigh, an American racehorse trainer, and his English wife.[1] She was renamed Vera Eugenie Leigh.[1]
Vera became an excellent horseback rider at a young age and she initially aspired to be a jockey.[1]
As a young woman, Leigh worked as a salesperson for Caroline Reboux, a noted Parisian milliner.[2] In 1927, Leigh and a friend opened a hat shop called Rose Valois on Place Vendome.[2] By the time World War II broke out, Leigh was a successful business woman.[2]
French Resistance
After the fall of Paris in 1940, Leigh left for Lyon to join her fiancé, a Swiss businessman.[2][3] In Lyon, Leigh helped to run an escape line for Allied servicemen trapped behind enemy lines.[2]
In 1942, Leigh used the same escape route to cross the Pyrenees to Spain.[2] She was captured by the Spanish and imprisoned for several months at the Miranda de Ebro internment camp near Bilbao.[1] Eventually, with assistance from a British Embassy official, Leigh was released from the camp and completed the journey to England via Gibraltar.[1]
Special Operations Executive
Soon after arriving in England, Leigh offered her services for the war effort.[2] Due to her perfect French, Leigh came to the attention of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), who recruited her for F Section.[2] Her interviewer noted "that she was a smart businesswoman and commerce was her first allegiance."[2] While training with the SOE, Leigh distinguished herself as "about the best shot in the party."[4] Around this time, Leigh agreed to drop all contact with her fiance who she felt she had jeopardized enough.[2]
Leigh was dispatched on her first and only mission and returned to France on 14/15 May 1943. She arrived at a field near Tours, one of four new arrivals that night who were received by F Section's air movements officer, Henri Dericourt.[1] She arrived with Juliane Aisner and Marcel Clech.[1]
Leigh was sent to France to work as a courier for Sidney Jones who was establishing a new sub-circuit known as 'Inventor', which was to work alongside the Prosper network.[1] Leigh's assumed identity was Suzanne Chavanne, a milliner's assistant, and her code name was Simone.[1]
Leigh stayed at a safe house in Neuilly-sur-Seine, before taking an apartment in Paris.[1] As the courier, Leigh regularly carried messages to Clech's home in the suburbs and met with Jones in Paris.[1] She also transported sabatoge materials to resistance members in and outside of Paris.[1] She felt comfortable in Paris and foolishly began booking appointments with her former hairdresser despite her new assumed identity.[2] She also resumed her working helping Allied airmen escape from occupied France.[2]
In July 1943, Leigh became concerned that F Section's air movements officer, Henri Dericourt, might be a German spy.[1] She passed this information on to Juliane Aisner and Nicolas Bodington, but no action was taken.[1]
Capture and execution
On 30 October 1943, Leigh was arrested at a café near the Place des Ternes and taken to 84 Avenue Foch, the Paris headquarters of the Sicherheitsdienst.[1] The Germans already knew everything about her activities.[1] On 13 May 1944, Leigh was taken to Fresnes prison.[1]
Although Leigh stuck to her cover story and did not crack, by the end of December all members of Inventor had been arrested.[5]
On 6 July 1944, Leigh, Diana Rowden, Andrée Borrel, and Sonia Olschanezky were taken to the concentration camp at Natzweiler-Struthof.[5] Later that day they were injected with phenol and placed in the crematorium furnace.[5]
Honours and awards
Leigh posthumously received the King's Commendation for Brave Conduct.[2][6]
 |
 |
 |
| 1939–1945 Star | France and Germany Star | War Medal with King's Commendation for Brave Conduct |
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Escott, Beryl (2010-12-26). Heroines of SOE: Britain's Secret Women in France. The History Press. ISBN 9780752462455.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Sebba, Anne (2016-10-18). Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved, and Died Under Nazi Occupation. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9781466849563.
- ↑ Grehan, John; Mace, Martin (2012-12-19). Unearthing Churchill's Secret Army: The Official List of SOE Casualties and Their Stories. Pen and Sword. ISBN 9781783376643.
- ↑ Foot, M. R. D. (2004-07-31). SOE in France: An Account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France 1940-1944. Routledge. ISBN 9781135769888.
- 1 2 3 Thomas, Gordon; Lewis, Greg (2017-01-01). Shadow Warriors of World War II: The Daring Women of the OSS and SOE. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 9781613730898.
- ↑ Kramer, Rita. Flames in the Field: The Story of Four SOE Agents in Occupied France (2008) Penguin Books, UK ISBN 978-0-14-024423-6
Sources
- Marucs Binney, The Women Who Lived for Danger: The Women Agents of SOE in the Second World War, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 2002; ISBN 0-340-81840-9
- Sarah Helm, A Life in Secrets: The Story of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE, London, Abacus, 2005; ISBN 978-0-349-11936-6