by Clare Mulley
2 Winston Churchill, ‘My Spy Story’, Thoughts and Adventures (1932), p. vi.
PREFACE
1 Pienkowska papers, Andrzej Kowerski/Wladimir Ledóchowski (1973).
2 Jan Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Granville’; also Jan Ledóchowski, ‘Who was she?’, p. 6.
3 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, pp. 5–6.
4 Ibid., p. 6.
5 Ibid., p. 5.
6 Jan Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Granville’, p. 1.
7 Mieczysława Wazacz, Tydzien Polski (Polish Week), (26.2.2005).
8 Jan Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Granville’, p. 22.
9 Picture Post, [Bill] Stanley Moss, ‘Christine the Brave’ (13.9.1952 – 4.10.1952).
10 Cole/Moss papers, Wladimir Ledóchowski letter to Bill Stanley Moss (13.0.1953).
11 Pienkowska papers, Andrzej Kowerski/Wladimir Ledóchowski (1973).
12 Wazacz, No Ordinary Countess.
13 Pienkowska papers, Andrzej Kowerski-Kennedy/Barbara Pienkowska (24 January, c. 1974).
1: BORDERLANDS
1 Daily Express, ‘Stabbed Heroine Told Her Story’ (17.6.1952).
2 Bęczkowice parish archive, Krystyna Skarbek’s baptism certificate (November 1913).
3 Masson, Christine: SOE Agent, p. 4.
4 Kasparek, ‘Krystyna Skarbek’: Re-viewing Britain’s legendary Polish agent’, The Polish Review, XLIX, no. 3 (2004), p. 946.
5 Zamoyski, Chopin, p. 20.
6 Stefania was described by Maria Nurowska, from photographs now lost.
7 Unattributed press cutting (12.12.1898), quoted in Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 12.
8 Alphabetical list of the landowners in the Kingdom of Poland (1909), p. 110.
9 Royal Castle Warsaw archive, Szymon Konarski to Wladimir Ledóchowski (1960).
10 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 8.
11 Ibid., p. 8.
12 Ibid., p. 10.
13 Wazacz, No Ordinary Countess, Janina Nowotna interview.
14 Zamoyski, Poland, p. 298.
15 Stanisław Rudziejewski was the father of the Polish novelist Maria Nurowska, who wrote a fictional account of Christine’s life in her novel Miłošnica.
16 Tarnowski, The Last Mazurka, pp. 59–60.
17 Conversation with Zbigniew Mieczkowski (April 2011).
18 Maria Nurowska, interview (June 2011).
19 Ibid.
20 Wazacz, No Ordinary Countess, Francis Cammaerts interview.
21 Kurjer Warszawski, notice of Jerzy Skarbek’s death (12.12.1930), p. 12.
2: TWO WEDDINGS AND A WAR
1 Mieczkowski, Horizons, p. 38.
2 Gombrowicz, Polish Memories, p. 81.
3 Breza, Nelly, p. 350.
4 Gombrowicz, Polish Memories, p. 179–80.
5 Register record, wedding Gustav Alexander Gettlich/Maria Krystyna Janina Skarbek (21.4.1930).
6 Wilnow, now Vilnius in Lithuania.
7 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 27.
8 Fiedler, The Women of My Youth, p. 52.
9 Giżycki, ‘Winding Trail’, p. 174.
10 Ibid., p. 352.
11 Ibid., pp. 351, 352.
12 Claude Dansey, Britain’s unofficial and independent spy-master, was in Rome at the same time. See Read and Fisher, Colonel Z, pp. 165–70.
13 Giżycki, ‘Winding Trail’, p. 386.
14 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 32.
15 Tadeusz Stachowski, ‘This would make a great movie!’, in Polish Week (16.12.2000).
16 Giżycki, ‘Winding Trail’, p. 110.
17 Howarth, Undercover. The Archie Mayo film Svengali, starring John Barrymore, had been released in 1931.
18 Giżycki, ‘Winding Trail’, p. 386.
19 Masson, Christine: SOE Agent, p. 291.
20 Cole/Moss papers, Patrick Howarth correspondence with Bill Stanley Moss (12 March, year unknown).
21 Mieczkowski, Horizons, p. 49.
22 Giżycki, ‘Winding Trail’, p. 389.
23 IWM, Gubbins papers: ‘Gubbins, Poland – The Final Curtain, 1939’.
24 Carton de Wiart, Happy Odyssey, p. 156.
25 Davies, God’s Playground, vol. 2, p. 435.
26 Giżycki, ‘Winding Trail’, p. 390.
27 Moorhouse, Killing Hitler, p. 89.
3: HUNGARIAN EMBRACES
1 TNA, HS9/612, ‘C/H Madame Marchand. MP. 4827’ (‘Madame Marchand’ and ‘4827’ are both Christine Granville, C/H is George Taylor, MP is Harold Perkins.).
2 TNA, HS9/588/2, ‘Statement by “X”’ (23.2.1941) (‘X’ is Granville, misfiled in Jerzy Giżycki’s file.).
3 Francis Cammaerts quoted in Jenkins, A Pacifist, p. 169.
4 Giżycki, ‘Winding Trail’, p. 395.
5 Karbowska, Getting to know Mackiewicz, p. 273.
6 Giżycki, ‘Winding Trail’, p. 394.
7 Masson, Christine: SOE Agent, p. xxi.
8 TNA, HS9/612/C425259, ‘To D/H from M/103, Fryday’ (7.12.1939).
9 Sweet-Escott, Baker Street Irregular, p. 27.
10 Read and Fisher, Colonel Z, p. 168.
11 Giżycki, ‘Winding Trail’, p. 394.
12 Nicholson (ed.), Nicholson Diaries and Letters, pp. 256–7.
13 Granville’s 1949 pocket diary, The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, London.
14 Conversation with M. R. D. Foot (March 2011); also Tony Wheeler, ‘Taylor, George Francis, 1903–1979’, The Australian Dictionary of National Biography, online edition (accessed May 2011).
15 Howarth, Undercover, p. 67.
16 TNA, HS9/612, ‘To D/H from M/103, Fryday’ (7.12.1939).
17 TNA, HS9/588/2, ‘Statement by “X”’ (23.2.1941).
18 TNA, HS9/612, ‘Notes on Madam G’ (7.12.1939).
19 Ibid., ‘Mme Marchand’ (20.12.1939).
20 Ibid., ‘C/H Madame Marchand. MP. 4827’.
21 Giżycki, ‘Winding Trail’, p. 395.
22 TNA, HS7/162, SOE histories, Hungary, ‘Hungarian Section History compiled by Major GI Klauber’.
23 Józef Kasparek, ‘Poland’s 1938 Covert Operations in Ruthenia’, East European Quarterly, vol. XXIII, no. 3 (1989), p. 370. See also Józef Kasparek, The Carpathian Bridge: a Covert Polish Intelligence Operation (1992).
24 TNA, HS7/162, SOE histories, Hungary: ‘Hungarian Section History compiled by Major GI Klauber’.
25 TNA, HS9/588/2, ‘Statement by “X”’, (23.2.1941).
26 Carton de Wiart, Happy Odyssey, p. 157.
27 Foot, SOE: An Outline History, p. 8.
28 Wilkinson, Foreign Fields, p. 72.
29 Ibid., pp. 72, 75.
30 Ibid., p. 75.
31 Bailey, Forgotten Voices, p. 3.
32 Wilkinson, Foreign Fields, p. 83.
33 Patrick Leigh Fermor, ‘The One-Legged Parachutist: Send for a Blacksmith!’, the Spectator (1.1.1989); Maria Pienkowska interview (June 2011); conversation with Maryś Skarbek, née Tarnowska, childhood neighbour and friend of Andrzej Kowerski (April 2011).
34 Patrick Leigh Fermor, ‘The One-Legged Parachutist: Send for a Blacksmith!’, the Spectator (1.1.1989).
35 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 41.
36 Wazacz, No Ordinary Countess, Barbara Kowerska Pienkowska interview.
37 Masson, Christine: SOE Agent, p. 44.
38 Ibid., p. 44.
39 Andrzej Kowerski-Kennedy quoted ibid., p. 44.
40 Masson, Christine: SOE Agent, p. 45.
41 This bridge was later bombed in the Russo-German battle for Budapest in 1944.
42 Andrzej Kowerski-Kennedy quoted in Masson, Christine: SOE Agent, p. 48.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid., p. 51.
45 TNA, HS9/612, ‘“Madame Marchand” (Madame Gizycka)’ (11.3.1940).
46 Ibid., ‘From DH11 for DHM’ (11.3.1940).
47 Ibid., ‘From
DH11 for DHM’ (11.3.1940).
48 Bailey, Forgotten Voices, p. 11.
49 TNA, HS9/612, ‘Madame Marchand and Freedom Station’ (22.4.1940).
50 Bailey, Forgotten Voices, p. 11.
51 TNA, HS9/612, ‘“Madame Marchand” (Madame Giżycka)’ (11.3.1940).
52 Wilkinson, Foreign Fields, p. 90; also Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 99.
53 Wilkinson, Foreign Fields, p. 90.
54 TNA, HS9/612, ‘Madame Marchand’ (11.3.1940).
55 TNA, HS9/588/2, ‘Statement by “X”’ (23.2.1941).
56 TNA, HS9/612, ‘“Madame Marchand” (Madame Gizycka)’ (11.3.1940).
4: POLISH RESISTANCE
1 Bill Stanley Moss, ‘Christine the Brave’, Picture Post, vol. 56, no. 11 (13.9.1952), p. 14.
2 TNA, HS9/588/2, ‘Statement by “X”’ (23.2.1941).
3 Musson, Christine: SOE Agent, p. 52.
4 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 55.
5 Ibid., p. 56.
6 TNA, HS9/612, ‘Draft citation for Krystyna Giżycka (Christine Granville)’ (nd).
7 Ibid.
8 Henryk Szymanski, Bęczkowice parish priest, Poland.
9 Wladimir Ledóchowski, The Diary, p. 110.
10 Davies, God’s Playground, vol. 2, p. 435.
11 Terry Charman, ‘Hugh Dalton, Poland and SOE’, in Seaman (ed.), Special Operations Executive, p. 66.
12 Moorhouse, Killing Hitler, p. 93.
13 Ibid., p. 94; also Davies, Rising ’44, p. 87.
14 Moorhouse, Killing Hitler, p. 102.
15 See Adam Zamoyski, ‘The Underground Factory: Poland in 1939–45’, History Today (1974).
16 Ibid.
17 See Zamoyski, Poland.
18 Wladimir Ledóchowski, The Diary, p. 109.
19 IWM, Gubbins Papers (4.1.1950), Peter Wilkinson talk entitled ‘Gubbins: A Resistance Leader’ (28.4.1990).
20 See Howarth, Undercover, p. 58, and Moorhouse, Killing Hitler, p. 97.
21 Stirling, Nałęcz, Dubiki (eds), Intelligence Co-operation, p. 185.
22 Leski, A Checkered Life, p. 107; also Howarth, Undercover, p. 68.
23 Leski, A Checkered Life, chapter 1.
24 See Buczek, The Musketeers.
25 Stirling, Nałęcz, Dubiki (eds), Intelligence Co-operation, p. 185.
26 The Polish Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 18 (1973), p. 472.
27 Leski, A Checkered Life, p. 106.
28 See Buczek, The Musketeers; also Masson, Christine: SOE Agent, p. 59.
29 Leski, A Checkered Life, p. 106.
30 TNA, HS9/612, ‘Draft citation for Krystyna Giżycka (Christine Granville)’ (nd).
31 TNA, HS9/588/2, ‘Statement by “X”’ (23.2.1941) (X is Christine).
32 TNA, HS9/612, ‘DH11 to DH1 and DHM’, British Section D internal report (14.4.1940). DH11 was Hubert Harrison in Budapest.
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid.
35 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, pp. 76–7.
36 TNA, HS9/612, ‘DH11 to DH1 and DHM’, British Section D internal report (14.4.1940).
37 Christopher Kasparek, ‘Krystyna Skarbek: Re-viewing Britain’s legendary Polish agent’, The Polish Review, XLIX, no. 3 (2004), pp. 945–53.
38 TNA, HS9/612, ‘DH11 to DH1 and DHM’, British Section D internal report (14.4.1940).
39 Gordimer, ‘Vladimir Ledóchowski’.
40 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, pp. 104–5.
41 Wladimir Ledóchowski, The Diary, p. 112; also Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 80.
42 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 83.
43 Jan Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Granville’, p. 6.
44 Wladimir Ledóchowski, The Diary, p. 117.
45 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 86.
46 Wladimir Ledóchowski, The Diary, pp. 118–20.
47 Ibid.
48 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 93.
49 Wladimir Ledóchowski, The Diary, pp. 118–20, and Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 94.
50 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 94.
5: A STRING OF ARRESTS
1 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 98.
2 Ibid., p. 100.
3 Wladimir Ledóchowski, The Diary, p. 129.
4 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 50.
5 Wladimir Ledóchowski, The Diary, p. 132.
6 Ibid., p. 132.
7 TNA, HS9/612, Letter Jerzy Giżycki to Section D (5.4.1940).
8 Ibid., Letter from Section D to Jerzy Giżycki (12.4.1940).
9 Ibid., Letter Jerzy Giżycki to Section D (21.5.1940).
10 O’Malley papers, Kate O’Malley, ‘Harrison’s agent, Mme Giżycka’.
11 TNA, HS9/588/2, ‘Statement by “X”’ (23.2.1941).
12 Ibid.
13 TNA, PREM 3/351/3, 1940 Poland, General 1, ‘To PM, 14 November 1940’, from Dalton.
14 Andrzej Kowerski-Kennedy quoted in Masson, Christine: SOE Agent, p. 63.
15 Christopher Kasparek, ‘Krystyna Skarbek: Re-viewing Britain’s legendary Polish agent’, The Polish Review, XLIX, no. 3 (2004), pp. 945–53.
16 Bill Stanley Moss, ‘What Makes a First-Class Secret Agent’, unknown newspaper (c.1952).
17 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 119.
18 Wladimir Ledóchowski, The Diary, p. 135.
19 IWM Sound Archive, 8682, Basil Risbridger Davidson.
20 Ibid.
21 Wladimir Ledóchowski, The Diary, pp. 133, 140.
22 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 113.
23 Ibid., p. 114.
24 Ibid., p. 115.
25 Wladimir Ledóchowski, The Diary, p. 143, also Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 117.
26 TNA, HS9/612, Jerzy Giżycki, in Paris, to X3 (6.6.1940).
27 Ibid., Draft Citation for Kristina Giżycka (Christine Granville) (nd, c.1944/5).
28 Wladimir Ledóchowski, The Diary, p. 145.
29 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 122.
30 Wladimir Ledóchowski, The Diary, p. 150.
31 They were following the Poprad–Muszyna line through Slovakia to Nowy Sacz in Poland. See Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 132.
32 Wladimir Ledóchowski, The Diary, p. 156.
33 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 138.
34 TNA, HS9/588/2, ‘Statement by “X”’ (23.2.1941).
35 Wladimir Ledóchowski, The Diary, p. 156.
36 Ibid.
37 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 309.
38 TNA, HS9/588/2, ‘Statement by “X”’ (23.2.1941).
39 O’Malley, Phantom Caravan, p. 208.
40 Celt, By Parachute to Warsaw, p. 55.
41 TNA, HS9/612, Jerzy Giżycki to SOE, London (1.7.1940).
42 Ibid., Jerzy Giżycki to X3 (nd).
43 TNA, HS9/588/2, Jerzy Giżycki, ‘W to AD1, 23.11.40’.
44 TNA, HS9/668, SOE personal files, Hubert Harrison, memo (30.6.1940).
45 Bridge, A Place to Stand, p. 149.
46 IWM Sound Archive, 8682, Basil Risbridger Davidson.
47 TNA, HS9/612, ‘Extracts copied as citations’ (1.12.1945) and HS9/612, ‘Krystyna Gizycka (alias Christine Granville)’ (1945/6); also TNA, HS9/830/3, Kowerski-Kennedy, dob 18.4.1912, ‘Army form W3121: Andrew Kowerski-Kennedy recommended for MBE (Military Division) by Lt Col Philip Rea for Major General Colin McVean Gubbins (absent on duty)’ (nd).
48 TNA, HS9/612, ‘Extracts copied as citations’ (1.12.1945).
49 Porter, Operation Autonomous, p. 73.
50 Sunday Pictorial, Ross
Richards, ‘Girl Spy’ (19.8.1956).
51 Giżycki, ‘Winding Trail’, p. 415.
52 Sunday Pictorial, Ross Richards, ‘Girl Spy’ (19.8.1956).
53 Bill Stanley Moss, ‘Christine the Brave’, Picture Post, vol. 56, no. 12 (20.9.1952).
54 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 48.
55 See Masson, Christine: SOE Agent, pp. 67–8.
56 TNA, HS9/612, George Taylor’s records relating to ‘Madame Marchand’ (23.11.1940).
57 O’Malley, Phantom Caravan, p. 199.
58 Bridge, Tightening String, p. 18.
59 Davidson, Special Operations Europe, p. 77.
60 Ibid.
61 Bailey, Forgotten Voices, p. 15.
62 O’Malley, Phantom Caravan, p. 208.
63 TNA, HS7/162, SOE histories 113, Hungary, ‘Hungarian Country Section’ report compiled by Major G. I. Klauber with reference to reports by Lt Col B. R. Davidson, Lt Col Boughey, Lt Col Threlfall, Major J. G. Coates and others (nd).
64 TNA, HS9/612, ‘Krystyna Giżycka (alias Christine Granville)’.
65 TNA, HS4/291, Poland 206, Sir Owen O’Malley to Harold Perkins (21.6.1944).
66 O’Malley, Phantom Caravan, p. 205.
67 Masson, Christine: SOE Agent, p. 66.
68 Bridge, Facts and Fictions, p. 83.
69 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 169.
70 Bridge, A Place to Stand, p. 67.
71 Wazacz, No Ordinary Countess, Erica de Bosdari interview. De Bosdari worked at the British Legation in Budapest.
72 TNA, HS9/612, ‘Krystyna Gizycka (alias Christine Granville)’ (late 1945/early 1946).
73 O’Malley, Phantom Caravan, p. 208.
74 Masson, Christine: SOE Agent, p. 70.
75 TNA, HS9/588/2, ‘Statement made by “X”’ (23.2.1941).
76 Ibid.
77 Wladimir Ledóchowski, ‘Christine Skarbek-Granville’, p. 143.
78 Ibid., p. 171.
79 Bridge, Tightening String, p. 180.
80 TNA, HS9/588/2, ‘Statement made by “X”’ (23.2.1941).
81 Wazacz, No Ordinary Countess, interviews with Barbara Pienkowska and Jan Skarbek.
82 Celt, By Parachute to Warsaw, p. 59.
83 Maria Nurowska, interview (June 2011).
84 Celt, By Parachute to Warsaw, p. 37.
85 Domańska, Pawiak: Gestapo Prison, p. 195.
86 Museum of the History of Polish Jews, ‘Historical Monuments, Places of Martyrdom, Pawiak’, www.szetl.org.pl/en/city/warszawa/ (accessed June 2011).
87 Wladimir Ledóchowski, and at least one of Christine’s post-war London friends, probably Stanisław Tarnowski, both reported a similar story of Christine’s attempted rescue of her mother.