Cecily Margot Gordon Lefort served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and in France for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive during the Second World War.
20 Facts About Cecily Lefort
2.
Cecily Lefort was arrested by the Gestapo in September 1943 and deported to Ravensbruck concentration camp, where she was later executed.
3.
In 1939, Alix Cecily Lefort was called up for service in the French army as a medical officer.
4.
Later, Cecily Lefort spoke with SOE's Naval officer Captain Peter Harratt and arranged for her villa in Brittany, which possessed a secure, hidden bay to be made available to the SOE.
5.
Cecily Lefort was seconded to the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry.
6.
In February 1943, Cecily Lefort began her training at Wanborough House as a field agent.
7.
Possibly tipped off, the Gestapo sent some SS men to the house to arrest whoever was there; Reynaud and Daujat escaped while Cecily Lefort was arrested hiding in the cellar.
8.
Cecily Lefort's arrest forced him to disperse his network, immediately relocating himself and his associates to safer places in anticipation that Lefort might reveal secrets to the Germans under interrogation or torture.
9.
Cecily Lefort was sent first to a prison in Lyon and then north to the Fresnes prison in Paris where she was brutally interrogated.
10.
Cecily Lefort subsequently "thrived" on a thick porridge and vegetable soup in Treite's belief this would cure her.
11.
In early 1945, Cecily Lefort volunteered for transfer to the Uckermark Camp, believing rumors that it was for sick prisoners with better medical facilities, no work requirement and no morning roll call.
12.
Cecily Lefort's eyes were terror-stricken and she was nervous of my answer.
13.
Cecily Lefort was among 12 female British SOE F-Section agents who were executed at concentration camps.
14.
Cecily Lefort was hanged by Albert Pierrepoint in Hameln prison on 3 May 1947.
15.
In September 1945, Major General Colin Gubbins, Head of SOE, recommended that Cecily Lefort be appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire :.
16.
Cecily Lefort worked with tireless energy and devotion for three months, often in conditions of grave danger and rendered valuable assistance to her commanding officer.
17.
Cecily Lefort travelled extensively throughout South Eastern France carrying messages to the various groups of the organization and showed great coolness and presence of mind in passing many police controls.
18.
Cecily Lefort was last heard of in a concentration camp in Germany, and is still missing.
19.
Cecily Lefort was Mentioned in Despatches for her services on 13 June 1946 and honoured by the government of France with a posthumous Croix de Guerre on 14 January 1948.
20.
Cecily Lefort is listed on the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey, England, the Tempsford Memorial close to RAF Tempsford, and on the "Roll of Honor" on the Valencay SOE Memorial in Valencay, France.