Violette Szabo

Violette Reine Elizabeth Bushell Szabo, GC, (26 June 1921 – c. 5 February 1945) was a Second World War French-British secret agent. She was born Violette Reine Elizabeth Bushell in Paris, France on 26 June 1921, the second child of a French mother and an English taxi-driver father, who had met during World War I. The family moved to London and she attended school in Brixton until the age of 14. At the start of the Second World War, she was working in the Bon Marché department store in Brixton on the perfume counter. Violette met Etienne Szabo, a French officer of Hungarian descent, at the Bastille Day parade in London in 1940. They married on 21 August 1940 after a whirlwind 42-day romance. Violette was 19, Etienne was 31. Shortly after...