Monica Emily Wichfeld (née Massy-Beresford; 12 July 1894 – 27 February 1945) was a leading member of the Danish resistance during the German occupation of Denmark in the Second World War.
Wichfeld was born to Irish parents at 7 Eaton Square in Belgravia in London and was raised at St. Hubert's, a large Victorian house in the townland of Geaglum, very near the villages of Derrylin and Teemore, in the south of County Fermanagh in the south-west of Ulster.
[2][3][5][6][7] She was born into a wealthy land-owning Church of Ireland family of mixed Anglo-Irish and Ulster Scots descent, her father being John George Massy-Beresford (1856-1923) and her mother being the Hon.
[2][3][4][5][8] Her brother was Brigadier Tim Massy-Beresford (1896-1987)[9] She was involved in the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) during the Home Rule Crisis in Ireland, and participated in the illegal distribution of firearms associated with the SS Clyde Valley Larne gun-running operation in April 1914, which was led by Major Fred Crawford.
[3][10] Wichfeld's favourite brother, Lieutenant John Clarina Massy-Beresford, served with the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) during the First World War and was killed in action in 1918 at the age of 21.
[17] Later that year, in a new partnership with Erik Kiersgaard, a member of the resistance who had organized a sabotage unit, Wichfeld began to store firearms, ammunition and explosives at Engestofte to support their cause.
[18] Through Count Carl-Adam "Bobby" Moltke, the son of a former Danish Foreign Affairs minister and deeply connected member of the political underground of Copenhagen, Wichfeld met Flemming Muus, a man that had trained under Winston Churchill's Special Operations Executive (SOE), and would eventually become her son-in-law.
When the resistance gained momentum and the Nazis sent in forces to quell it, Wichfeld was instrumental in facilitating the escape of Danish patriots fleeing the country, including Himar Wulff and his wife.
[22] The Ulster History Circle unveiled a blue plaque in her memory at Kinawley and Holy Trinity Parish Church in Derrylin in November 2023, close to her childhood home, St. Hubert's, on the shores of Upper Lough Erne.