This little known female spy hero of the second world war has died at the age of 102. She was one of Winston Churchill’s so called “secret army”, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a group of spies who were secretly ensconced in France during the second world war, then under occupation by the German army, to spy on the enemy. Phyllis Latour, who had the codename, Genevieve, was to send vital information back to headquarters in Britain about the location and activities of the occupying forces in Northern France before the D-day landings of 1944.
The National Archives have released Phyllis’s wartime file, and they paint a vivid picture of a woman who had remarkable courage in the face of danger and adversity. She was born to a French father and a British mother in 1921 but sadly she was orphaned at the age of four and had to go and live with her uncle in the Belgian Congo, where she grew up becoming bi-lingual in French and English. At the age of 20 she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force as a balloon operator, but not content with that role, she applied for and joined the SOE in 1941. She was one of only 39 women agents who served in occupied France with the SOE and of those, only one still survives today, a Pippa Doyle.
Phyllis parachuted into France on the 1st of May 1944 at the start of what was to become an itinerant, dangerous two week tour of duty. She was found by the enemy forces on at least two occasions, but with nerve and quick thinking she evaded capture and managed to send 135 essential transmissions of her first hand observations of the enemy back to England. Ironically it was the Americans who finally arrested her and would not release her until they were satisfied about her true identity!
Sent back to England, she became restless in the restrictive, sedentary environment in which she then found herself. She was very much offended by her superior officers who she felt lacked sufficient gratitude in recognizing her contribution to the war effort. She wanted to return to Germany for active duty as soon as possible, but unfortunately for her, the war ended before she had the chance. She was awarded an MBE for her secret services as Genevieve, which delighted her, perhaps because it was affirmation of her worth at that time. She was also given Croix de Guerre by France for her war efforts, and in 2014 France awarded her its highest accolade when she was made a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur.
After the War Phyllis married and lived first in Kenya, then she moved around from there to Fiji, Australia then finally settled down in New Zealand where she lived until her death.
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