Krystyna Skarbek Memorial
Krystyna Skarbek was Britain’s first female special agent of WW2. This memorial to her was commissioned by Ognisko Polskie, the Polish Hearth Club, London. It is the first memorial to Skarbek.
Polish-born Countess Krystyna Skarbek, aka Christine Granville, was Britain’s first and longest serving female special agent of the Second World War.
In 1941, the vital intelligence she smuggled across borders prompted Churchill to remark that she was his ‘favourite spy’. Despite being arrested more than once, Krystyna used her guile to save not only her own life, but also those of many of her male colleagues, but it was her service behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France that made her legendary among the special forces. Not only did she make the first contact between the French resistance and Italian partisans in preparation for D Day in the south, she also secured the defection of an entire German garrison on a strategic pass in the mountains. For her courage and achievements in three different theatres of the war, she was awarded the OBE, George Medal, and French Croix de Guerre.
- PRESS:
- London Live – Britain’s first female second world war spy honoured in west London
- Telegraph – 14 statues of inspiring women around Britain
- Telegraph – Brave, ballsy and lost in history: The forgotten female spy every Brit should know about
- The Guardian – Britain’s first female second world war spy to get overdue recognition
- BBC Radio 4 – Today, 08/05/2017