Churchill’s ‘ favourite spy’ honoured
A WARTIME female special agent who Winston Churchill called his “favourite spy” has been honoured with an English Heritage blue plaque.
Polish- born Christine Granville became a legend for her daring exploits behind enemy lines.
As the first woman to serve with the hush- hush Special Operations Executive she was credited with smuggling microfilm across Europe, skiing in temperatures of - 30C and persuading a German garrison to defect to the Allies.
She also saved the lives of many French Resistance fighters and fellow secret agents, including an uncle of author
Michael Morpurgo. But Christine, who was born in Warsaw in 1908 as Krystyna Skarbek, struggled in civilian life after the war and said she had to endure “the horrors of peace”. She drifted from one lowly job to another and eventually was given cheap accommodation at the Shellbourne Hotel in Kensington, west London, which was then run by the Polish Relief Society.
She lived there from 1949 until 1952, when she was murdered at 44 by an obsessed stalker she had met while they were both working as cruise ship stewards. The plaque commemorating her has been installed at the revamped hotel and describes her simply as “SOE Agent”.
Christine’s war career was said to have inspired Ian Fleming’s spy character Vesper Lynd in the Bond novel Casino Royale.
Author Clare Mulley, who penned Christine’s biography The Spy Who Loved, said: “Krystyna, aka Christine, was one of the most effective special agents to serve Britain during the war, male or female.”
Writer Michael Morpurgo said: “Her courage was forged by a love of freedom and a hatred of a cruel and ruthless enemy.”
Polish Ambassador Arkady Rzegocki added: “She impressed Churchill so much he dubbed her his favourite spy. I am proud and pleased she is being honoured.”