Krystyna Skarbek

Krystyna Skarbek

Maria Krystyna Janina Skarbek, GM, OBE, Croix de guerre (1 May 1908 - 15 June 1952) was a Polish Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent. She became celebrated especially for her daring exploits in intelligence and irregular-warfare missions in Nazi-occupied Poland and France.

She became a British agent months before the SOE was founded in July 1940 and was one of the longest-serving of all Britain's wartime women agents. Her resourcefulness and success have been credited with influencing the organization's policy of recruiting increasing numbers of women.

In 1941, she began using the nom de guerre Christine Granville, which she legally adopted on naturalisation as a British citizen in February 1947.

Although there is no reliable evidence that she was a friend of Ian Fleming, Skarbek is said, by some, to have been the inspiration for Bond girls Tatiana Romanova and Vesper Lynd.