Auction 134 Autograph Auction Military TV Film Music Historic Space Photos Books Sport Prints
By Chaucer Auctions
May 24, 2023
Unit 1, Bowles Well Gardens, Folkestone, Kent, CT19 6PQ
The auction has ended

LOT 59:

WW2 resistance Odette Hallowes GC signed 25th ann RAF Escaping Society cover Westland Lysander SC28. Odette Sansom ...

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Sold for: £50
Start price:
£ 20
Estimated price :
£20 - £30
Buyer's Premium: 22.95% More details
Auction took place on May 24, 2023 at Chaucer Auctions
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WW2 resistance Odette Hallowes GC signed 25th ann RAF Escaping Society cover Westland Lysander SC28. Odette Sansom GC, MBE (28 April 1912 - 13 March 1995), also known as Odette Churchill and Odette Hallowes, code named Lise, was an agent for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France during the Second World War. She was the first woman to be awarded the George Cross by the United Kingdom and was awarded the Légion d'honneur by France. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, especially Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. Sansom arrived in France on 2 November 1942 and worked as a courier with the Spindle network (or circuit) of SOE headed by Peter Churchill (whom she later married). In January 1943, to evade arrest, Churchill and Sansom moved their operations to near Annecy in the French Alps. She and Churchill were arrested there on 16 April 1943 by spy-hunter Hugo Bleicher. She spent the rest of the war imprisoned in Ravensbrück Concentration Camp. Her wartime experiences and endurance of a brutal interrogation and imprisonment, which were chronicled in books and a motion picture, made her one of the most celebrated members of the SOE and one of the few to survive Nazi imprisonment. Good condition. All autographs are genuine hand signed and come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £5.99, EU from £7.99, Rest of World from £10.

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