Cicely Lefort

Cicely Margot Lefort (née Gordon, 30 April 1899 – February 1945)[1][2] served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and in France for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War.

[15][16] The villa became part of the Var escape line run by SOE agent Erwin Deman, which enabled nearly 70 men and women to enter and to exit occupied France without capture.

[16] Her fluency in French brought her to the attention of the SOE, and in January 1943, she volunteered to be a field agent with the F Section (France) of the Special Operations Executive based in London.

"[21] At the next level of instruction, L/Cpl Gordon reported: "Very ladylike, very English in spite of French background, has a wide circle of friends amongst quite well known and influential people, politicians, gens du monde, artists of the Salon School, all very respectable.

[23] On the night of 16 June 1943, with fellow SOE agents Diana Rowden and Noor Inayat Khan, she was flown to a landing field in the Loire Valley[24][page needed][25] where they were met by Henri Dericourt.

[3] Upon arrival in France, Lefort took a seven-mile bicycle ride to the village of Angers and then caught a train to Paris and then took another to Montelimar where she would serve as courier for the "Jockey network" run by Francis Cammaerts.

[27] Geographically, Jockey extended down the left bank of the Rhone between Vienne and Aries and eastwards to the Isere Valley along the Mediterranean north to Lyon and across the Swiss and Italian borders.

[28] With the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943, the Jockey network received more supplies and increased its sabotage of railway lines, power stations and other industrial targets.

[29][32] Stuck late at night and ignoring the warning, Lefort and the Jockey Circuit sabotage instructor, Pierre Reynaud, on 15 September 1943, went to the home of Raymond Daujat, the local resistance leader in Montelimar.

Her 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.

[43] In early 1945, Lefort volunteered for transfer to the Uckermark death complex, believing rumors that it was for sick prisoners with better medical facilities, no work requirement and no morning roll call.

Another British inmate nurse, Mary Lindell De Moncy, told Atkins that she had sent recall messages to the three Englishwomen to return to the main camp, but while O'Shaughnessy did so, Lefort refused to leave Young, who was in a very bad condition.

[52] In September 1945, Major General Colin Gubbins, Head of SOE, recommended that Lefort be appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE): This officer (C.M.

She travelled (sic) 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.

For her courage, perseverance and devotion to duty it is recommended that this officer be appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Military Division)[53]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.

Lefort worked mostly in Drôme Department for the Jockey network.