Plaque for Second World War heroine Lilian Rolfe unveiled in Paris

Malcolm Rolfe said it was a “great honour” to help unveil a plaque in Paris dedicated to special operations executive Lilian Rolfe.

The deputy mayor of Paris, the mayor of the city’s seventh arrondissement and other relatives also attended the unveiling at 32 Avenue Duquesne, where Lilian was born in 1914 to an English father and Russian mother, and where she lived until she was 19.

The idea of dedicating a plaque was raised by a member of the Rolfe family before the pandemic - and was keenly taken up by French authorities.

“I was just so pleased that Paris was prepared to put up a plaque for a member of my family,” said Mr Rolfe.

Lilian Rolfe helped co-ordinate drops of arms, money and clothes to the Resistance during the Second World War (Image: Malcolm Rolfe)

Lilan and her family moved to Brazil in 1932 and became part of the British community in Rio de Janeiro.

But during the Second World War, she wanted to contribute to the war effort and set sail for England, where in 1943 she enrolled in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.

Because of her fluent French she was approached to become a secret agent working in occupied France.

All such agents were volunteers and their chances of being captured made clear.

READ MORE: Late Worcestershire veteran's incredible Second World War story

In Lilian’s case the average time before arrest was six weeks as a radio operator.

On completion of her SOE training she landed in occupied France near Orléans by Lysander aircraft on April 6, 1944.

She joined a large group of French Resistance fighters and the radio messages she sent and received were important because of the Allied landings on D-Day.

Lilian sent 67 messages back to London, helping to coordinate parachute drops of arms, ammunition, money and clothes for the Resistance.

The plaque is unveiled (Image: Malcolm Rolfe)

Because the Gestapo were always trying to track down where the radio messages came from, Lilian was on the move continuously, only staying a few days in one place.

On July 31, 1944, in Nargis, a small village in the Loiret district, Lilian was arrested and deported to the women’s concentration camp at Ravensbrück in Germany.

There in late January/early February 1945 she was executed alongside Violet Szabo and Denise Bloch.

She was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre avec Palme, a French military honour.

Lilian, played by Anne Leon, appears at the end of a 1958 film about Violette Szabo called Carve her Name with Pride. She is also remembered at the Violette Szabo museum in Wormelow, Herefordshire.