Who was Odette Sansom in World War II?

Odette Sansom was a female British spy and Special Operations Executive agent who worked with the French Resistance during World War II. Her wartime code name was Lise.

Born in France as Odette Brailly, she became associated with Britain’s clandestine SOE after responding to a wartime request for photographs of the French coast. She arrived in occupied France in November 1942 and served as a courier for the Spindle network, led by Peter Churchill.

German intelligence arrested Sansom and Churchill near Annecy in April 1943. The Gestapo interrogated and tortured her, but she protected other agents by maintaining a fabricated story that Churchill was related to Prime Minister Winston Churchill. She was later imprisoned at Ravensbrück concentration camp and survived the war.

After the war, Sansom received the George Cross, Britain’s highest award for gallantry outside combat. She was the first woman to receive the honour while alive. Her name is sometimes given as Odette Hallowes or Odette Churchill because of her later marriages.