Unveiled in 2009, with its back to Lambeth Palace overlooking the Thames River, is one of a few memorials to the Special Operations Executive. This was a secret organisation of men and women who performed their covert duties behind enemy lines during World War II. Some 13,000 people worked for the Executive, of which about 3,200 were women. The bust on this particular monument is that of Violette Szabo.
- Sarah Nash
- Last Checked and/or Updated 4 July 2023
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- England, Greater London
Also known as ‘Churchill’s Secret Army’, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) was formed in 1940 and ran undercover operations until 1946, when the war was over. Its purpose was to aid local resistance groups behind enemy lines, conduct acts of sabotage and to spy on the enemy. They mainly operated in occupied Europe, but moved to Asia and Africa in the latter stages of the war.
Agents were selected for their language skills and the ability to cope with ‘rough soldiering’. They came from all walks of life, from the aristocracy to the working classes. Criminals were also used, as were women. To begin with, women were used only as couriers but they were soon sent into the field fully trained in unarmed combat and weaponry to carry out full scale missions. The agent memorialised on a monument to the SOE on Lambeth Palace Road is Violette Szabo, a French/British agent who was captured, tortured, sent to a concentration camp and then executed.
Violette Szabo
Violette was born in Paris, but moved to London as a child. When war broke out in 1940, she had series of war jobs, in the Land Army, ATS and an armament factory. She married a highly decorated Hungarian in the French Foreign Legion at the age of 19 and they had a daughter. Tragically, he was killed in action just months after her birth and he never got to see their daughter. Violette was approached to join the SOE, probably because of her language skills, and she accepted to seek revenge on the enemy who had killed her husband.
Szabo underwent extensive training and conducted missions in occupied France. Her final mission, just two days after D-Day, saw her parachuted in to northern France. Here she was to coordinate local resistance activities against German attempts to slow the advance of the Allied troops landing on the Normandy beaches.
The car Szabo and colleagues were travelling in was stopped at a roadblock. In their attempt to flee, Violette fell and twisted her ankle. She urged her colleagues to run, while she hid behind a tree and provided cover for her fleeing colleagues. Some German soldiers were killed, others were kept at bay for about 30 minutes before she ran out of ammunition.
Violette Szarbo was captured, tortured and interrogated by the SS and the Gestapo, before being sent to Ravensbrück, a concentration camp in Germany, in August 1944. Living in appalling conditions and treated brutally, she was eventually executed by a single gunshot in the back of the head in February 1945, at the age of just 23. Szabo was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1946, the Croix de Guerre in 1947 and the Médaille de la Résistance in 1973, which are now on display in the Imperial War Museum in London.
WWII Walking Tours in London
SOE Agents Memorial on Lambeth Palace Road
The stone plinth on which her bust sits “is in honour of all the courageous SOE agents: those who did survive and those did not survive their perilous missions.” One plaque is dedicated to ‘the Maquis French Resistance Fighters’: 470 SOE agents who were sent on sabotage missions to France, where they worked with the local French Resistance. It is fitting that Violette Szabo is single out on this plaque. Another plaque is dedicated to the heroes of Telemark, the Norwegian Resistance fighters sponsored by the SOE who raided the Norsk Hydro plant in Telemark, Norway. They sabotaging the machinery used by the Germans to produce heavy water. Thereby thwarting Nazi attempts to manufacture the atom bomb.
There is a museum dedicated to Violette Szabo in Herefordshire, in the house where she spent some of her childhood and stayed between missions, where you can learn more about her. The National Army Museum in nearby Chelsea has items used by SOE. Agents. You can also visit the SOE ‘finishing school’ in Beaulieu where Violette received some of her training.
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SOE Agents Memorial, Lambeth Road
Unveiled on 4th October 2009 by the Duke of Wellington is a memorial to the Special Operations Executive Agents, those who survived, and those who did not, their missions during World War II. The SEO was a secret organisation of men and women who performed their covert duties behind enemy lines during World War II. Some 13,000 people worked for the Executive, of which about 3,200 were women. The bust on this, one of a few memorials to the SEO, monument is that of Violette Szabo. The bronze bust is the work of the artist Karen Newman.
Violette Szabo Museum
Opened in June 2000, the museum tells the story of Violette Szabo. The museum was conceived by Rosemary Rigby MBE, Violette’s aunt. Szabo was the first woman to be awarded the George Cross for her service during the Second World War. She was one of the Special Operations Executive agents, conducting covert missions behind enemy line. Szabo was captured during one of these operations and was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she and other SEO agents died. Entrance is free, but donations are gratefully received.
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