Phyliss "Pippa" Latour MBE

MBE

MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...

, was a heroine of the Special Operations Executive

Special Operations Executive

The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...

 during the Second World War.

Early life

Latour's father, Philippe, was French and married to Louise, a British citizen living in South Africa, where Phyllis was born in 1921.

WAAF & Special Operations Executive

She moved from South Africa to England and joined the WAAF in November 1941 (Service Number 718483) as a flight mechanic for airframes. Recruited by the SOE, officially joining on 1 November 1943 and was commissioned as an Honorary Section Officer

Section Officer

Section Officer may be:*The equivalent rank to Flying Officer in the British Women's Auxiliary Air Force*The equivalent rank to Sergeant in some British Special ConstabulariesDefinition:...

.

She parachuted into Orne, Normandy on 1 May 1944 to operate as part of the Scientist

SOE F Section networks

These are the networks, also known as circuits, established in France by F Section of the British Special Operations Executive during the Second World War...

 circuit, using the codename Genevieve to work as a wireless operator with the organiser Claude de Baissac

Claude de Baissac

Claude Denis Boucherville de Baissac, known as Claude de Baissac or by his codename David was a Mauritius-born agent in the Special Operations Executive...

 and his sister Lisé de Baissac

Lisé de Baissac

Lise Marie Jeanette de Baissac was born in Mauritius of French descent and British nationality. She was a heroine of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War, a special agent who risked her life running her own operations, but was denied a gallantry award after the war.-Escape...

 (the courier). She worked successfully and largely avoiding detection of the Germans, she sent over 135 messages to London, remaining in France until the liberation in August 1944.

Post WWII

After World War II Latour married an engineer with the surname Boyle, and went to live in East Africa

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...

.

External links

• A South African Girl in the Special Operations Executive (article by Ross Dix-Peek)