Éliane Sophie Plewman (6 December 1917 – 13 September 1944) was a British agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and a member of the French Resistance working as a courier for the "MONK circuit" in occupied France during World War II.

SOE's objective was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance against the Axis Powers, especially Nazi Germany in occupied Europe and to aid local resistance movements.

The daughter of Eugene Henry Browne-Bartroli, an English manufacturer based in France, and his Spanish wife Elisa Francesca (née Bartroli),[1] she was educated in England and in Spain at the British School in Madrid.

When she finished college she moved to Leicester to work for a clothing and fabric import/export company in Albion Street, using her language skills in English, French, Spanish and some Portuguese.

[7] Plewman also learnt how to kill with – or without – a weapon, how to handle explosives and detonators, sabotage railway lines, blow up trains, take on a new identity, improvise answers to any question, invent a plausible past and cover story, including a likely occupation, without ever giving herself away or contradicting herself.

[11] Major General Colin Gubbins Head of SOE wrote as a part of his recommendation for Plewman's gallantry award: "She was dropped in the Jura and was separated from her circuit for some time.

For six months Plewman worked as a courier and her untiring devotion to duty and willingness to undergo any risk largely contributed to the successful establishment of her circuit.

She travelled constantly maintaining liaison between the various groups, acting as guide to newly arriving agents and transporting wireless telegraphy equipment and compromising documents.

[13][12] Browne-Bartroli (codename "Tiburce") had, after undergoing identical training, become head of SOE's Ditcher circuit, which was active in Bourgogne from October 1943 to September 1944, which he led until the Allies' final victory.

[15] During the night of 11 September 1944, the Gestapo collected Éliane Plewman, Yolande Beekman and Madeleine Damerment from the prison and drove them to Karlsruhe railway station in time to catch the early train to Munich.

Between 0800 and 1000 hours the next morning, 13 September 1944, Plewman and three other SOE agents (Yolande Beekman, Madeleine Damerment and Noor Inayat Khan) were taken from their cell and forced to kneel in pairs before being executed by a single shot to the head by executioner Wilhelm Ruppert.

[25] In 1998 the Mayor of Marseille unveiled a plaque on 8, rue Mérentié to commemorate the place where Plewman, Charles Skepper and Arthur Steele, all Monk agents, were arrested by the Gestapo; and, in the 13th arondissement, a street was named in her honour.

Post-war investigations determined very clear evidence of the fate of the group of female British SOE agents and, unlike some of their colleagues, their families had detailed accounts of their time in captivity and of their deaths.