Odette Sanson was one of many female secret agents who risked their lives to enter into occupied France during WW2.

Odette worked as a radio operator for several months in France before being betrayed by a double agent - A German officer who pretended he wanted to share secrets.

Odette was sentenced to death and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp for her execution to be carried out. However, she managed to escape death by pretending to be married to a relation of Winston Churchill.

After the War she worked hard for charities dedicated to healing the wounds of the war.

Her life was dramatised in a film - Carve her name with Pride. Ironically Odette was very modest and only reluctantly accepted a George's cross on the condition it was on behalf of all agents.

There were many other female agents who gave their lives as Secret Service agents. (The average lifespan of a SOE radio operator could be counted in months)

• A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE (Paperback)by Sarah Helm (Author)
  

Film about Violette Szabo