Odette Samson... A real spy during WWII

My Regency Spy Romances feature characters, both men and women, that are agents of the Crown and who are fiercely loyal to their King and Country.

Sadly, my characters are fictional, but I would like to highlight a real female spy during WWI. Her name was Mrs. Odette Samson. She was recruited by the Special Operative Executives (SOE), which had been established to conduct missions of intelligence, espionage and sabotage throughout Western Europe.

Sansom was a devoted wife and mother who had initially resisted the recruitment efforts due to her children, especially since her husband was already deployed and fighting in the war. However, her duty to her country finally won out and she agreed to attend the training. During training, she excelled at unarmed combat, weapons handling, Morse code and the art of sabotage.

Leaving her three kids with the nuns of St. Helen's convent school was exceptionally difficult, but she soon was deployed and joined the few other female spies in the Allied operation. In France, she was put to work as a bicycle courier, carrying messages from her spy cell to other resistance member and also conveyed her cell’s intelligence reports to an agent who flew them back to SOE headquarters in London. Furthermore, she worked as a radio operator, which was a very dangerous but important job. 

In 1943, Sansom was betrayed by a German officer posing as an SOE agent. She was taken to the notorious Fresnes Prison, where Gestapo officers tortured her relentlessly. Still, she gave up no information and helped save the life of her commanding officer by denying his involvement.

When she was sentenced to death on two counts of espionage, Sansom replied, “You will have to make up your mind on which count I am to be executed because I can only die once!”

She was sent to Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp north of Berlin, but managed to survive the harsh ordeal.

In 1946, Sansom became the first woman to receive the George Cross for gallantry, Britain’s highest nonmilitary award.