Violette Szabo Museum, Herefordshire

EDM number 864 in 1999-00, proposed by Paul Keetch on 19/06/2000.

That this House recalls with gratitude the life of Violette Szabo, who spent part of her childhood in Herefordshire; notes that her husband Etienne died at El Alamein fighting for the Free French Foreign Legion and never saw his daughter Tania, after which Violette joined the Special Operations Executive; recalls her flight to France, 24 hours after D Day, to pass messages to the Maquis; further recalls that she was captured by German troops despite giving fierce resistance, and was tortured and shot by the Gestapo at Ravensbruck Prison in January 1945; is proud that this young woman became the first woman to be awarded the George Cross posthumously and then the Croix de Guerre with Clasps; congratulates Miss Rosemary Rigby MBE who now lives at Cartref in Wormelow, where Violette stayed between missions, for establishing the Violette Szabo Museum; looks forward to the opening of the museum on 24th June, by Miss Virginia McKenna who played Violette in the film, Carve her Name with Pride; and salutes all those men and women of SOE and other special forces for the part they played in defeating Nazism in Europe.

This motion has been signed by a total of 92 MPs.