Lise de Baissac

Her father was Marie Louis Marc de Boucherville Baissac (1878–1945) and her mother was Marie Louise Jeanette Dupont.

Her family were large landowners in Mauritius, but British subjects as all Mauritians then were.

Lise Marie Jeanette de Baissac MBE CdeG (11 May 1905 – 29 March 2004), code names Odile and Marguerite, was a Mauritian agent in the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in France during World War II.

The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany.

SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.

The family moved to Paris in 1919.

When she was 17 years old she met her future husband, Gustave Villameur, a penniless artist.

Her mother disapproved of the romance and sent de Baissac to Italy.

Returning to Paris, de Baissac worked in an office although employment was unusual for an upper-class young woman at the time.

In 1940 Paris was occupied by the Germans.

Her older brother, Jean de Baissac, joined the British Army.

Lise and her younger brother, Claude, travelled to the Dordogne region in southern France in an attempt to reach England.

She obtained help with travel arrangements to England from the American Consulate and crossed into Spain and went to Lisbon, where she and her brother waited for five months for permission to travel to Gibraltar and on to the UK.

The pair arrived in Scotland in 1941 and she made her way to London.

Through her family's ties with the wife of Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley, she got a job at the Daily Sketch.

Her brother Claude was recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE).

Because of their proficiency in both English and French, Mauritians were often recruited as agents in France by the SOE.

Fourteen would serve with the SOE during World War II.

As soon as the SOE began recruiting women, de Baissac applied to join.

De Baissac was one of the first SOE female agents to be parachuted into occupied France in September 1942.

During her two missions to France she often worked with her brother Claude who headed the Scientist network of SOE.

The couple was most useful shortly before and after the D-Day invasion of France by the allies.

The de Baissacs armed and organized French Resistance forces to hinder the German response to the invasion and to assist the allies.

Lise de Baissac had frequent encounters with German soldiers in the heavily militarized region in which she worked, but she eluded capture.

She was awarded several gallantry awards after the war.

The only daughter among three children, Lise de Baissac was born in British Mauritius.

She was interviewed by Selwyn Jepson, and accepted for training in May 1942.

She was described as "a mature woman of thirty-seven, small, slight, with black hair, light eyes, and a confident manner."

She had the family characteristic of being "difficult but dedicated."

Female SOE agents were trained as couriers or wireless operators and worked for male "organisers," but de Baissac was identified as having the ability to head her own network.

Her training took place at Beaulieu, Hampshire, where she trained with the second group of women recruited by the SOE including Mary Herbert, Odette Sansom and Jacqueline Nearne.

She was commissioned in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry in July 1942.

The commandant at Beaulieu wrote that De Baissac was "quite imperturbable and would remain cool and collected in any situation... [s]he was very much ahead of her fellow students."

On the night of 25 September 1942 (the night after their parachute drop was aborted due to the signals in the drop zone being incorrect), de Baissac ("Odile") and Andrée Borrel ("Denise") became the first female SOE agents to be parachuted into occupied France (Yvonne Rudellat had arrived by boat two months earlier).

On the eve of her departure, she was taken for dinner by Colonel Maurice Buckmaster and seen off from RAF Tempsford in a Whitley bomber.

Borrel was the first to drop, with de Baissac following in quick succession, landing in the village of Bois Renard near the town of Mer.

They were met by Resistance leader Pierre Culioli.

Borrel departed for Paris to work for the Prosper network of Francis Suttill.

De Baissac went to Poitiers.

De Baissac's role was as a courier and liaison officer for her brother Claude's Scientist network in Bordeaux, communicating with the Prosper (or Physician) network in Paris and with the Bricklayer network of fellow Mauritian France Antelme in Tours.