This is the dagger disguised as a hairbrush that was used by a femme fatale assassin nicknamed “Churchill’s favorite spy” to kill German officers and other targets in World War II.
Maria Krystyna Janina Skarbek was the first and most senior special agent to work for Britain during World War II.
She is said to be the inspiration behind the spy character Vesper Lynd in Ian Fleming’s first 007 novel, Casino Royale, which was published in 1953.
After Poland was invaded by Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1939, Krystyna worked for the Special Operations Executive throughout the war using the pseudonyms Christine Granville and Pauline Armand.
At the outbreak of hostilities, she traveled to Britain with her then-husband and joined the Secret Intelligence Service, which described her as “absolutely brave.”
Her success is credited with influencing the organization’s decision to recruit more women as agents in Nazi-occupied countries.
The spy’s brush, now donated to a museum, contains a dagger hidden in the handle.
Maria Krystyna Janina Skarbek, also known as Christine Granville, was the longest-serving special agent in the British Special Operations Executive.
This is the dagger disguised as a hairbrush that the murderess used.
The hairbrush was donated to the House on the Hill museum, Stansted Mountfitchet.
The blue plaque unveiled at the former Shelbourne Hotel (now 1 Lexham Gardens), Kensington, in honor of the late Special Constable.
She was born in 1908 into an aristocratic but penniless Polish family, the daughter of a Catholic nobleman and a Jewish woman.
She was expelled from nun school at age 14 for setting fire to a priest’s cassock during mass.
At age 23, she won a beauty contest in the elegant winter resort of Zakopane, and when the Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, she was married to Jerzy Gizycki, a wealthy diplomat 20 years her senior who was a Polish consul. in the East. Africa.
The couple returned from Nairobi to London in 1939 and, while Jerzy went to France, as part of the Polish government in exile, Krystyna devised a dangerous proposal for the sabotage arm of the British Secret Intelligence Service, known as Section D (for’ Destruction’).
His most famous achievement in Nazi-occupied France came after D-Day, when he rescued two SOE agents from the Gestapo hours before they were shot, threatening the Gestapo leader and offering him a massive bribe.
Aware that the war was coming to an end, he accepted and the men were freed. A fictional version of the event featured in the 1980s television series ‘Wish Me Luck’, about female SOE agents.
It is said to have inspired the James Bond characters Tatiana Romanova in From Russia with Love and Vesper Lynd in two different versions of Casino Royale.
Born in 1908 into an aristocratic but penniless Polish family, Krystyna was the first female British agent to serve in the field and the oldest of all British women in wartime.
In November 1940, he discovered that his mother Stefania, by then separated from his father, had been arrested in Warsaw for failing to register as Jewish.
Krystyna found a Gestapo official who would spare her mother’s life for a price: the equivalent of £3,000 today and a night in her bed. Only after they had slept together did she tell him that Stefania had died in Auschwitz.
The incident only served to intensify his hatred of the Nazis.
He even skied across the Czechoslovak mountains into occupied Poland in one of his first clandestine operations. He also carried out espionage missions in Cairo, Syria, Lebanon, Budapest and Türkiye.
The spy carried a seven-inch commando knife in a leather sheath strapped to her thigh, and preferred hand grenades to guns. “With a gun you can defend yourself against at most one person,” she once explained. “With one hand grenade, against five, maybe ten.”
After the war, he saw no future in Poland, where a Soviet-backed communist regime had been installed and had taken menial jobs in Britain.
She was rejected for several military jobs, dismissed as a “dumb girl”, MI6 documents revealed, and was forced to make a living as a Harrods girl, a toilet cleaner in steerage sections of cruise ships and as a waitress. .
She was expelled from nun school at age 14 for setting fire to a priest’s cassock during mass.
She is buried in London under a layer of earth bought by friends from then-communist Poland.
The murderess met her end in June 1952. She lived in cheap accommodation in Earl’s Court, where an obsessed and jealous ex-lover, Dennis Muldowney, stabbed her to death with a Commando knife.
He was hanged weeks later after admitting to the crime.
After her death, six of the men who had been her wartime lovers gathered at a London club to celebrate her.
She is buried in Kensal Green, London, under a layer of earth bought by friends from then-communist Poland.
His dagger and hairbrush have now been donated to the House on the Hill museum, Stansted Mountfitchet, as part of a collection of Second World War items after its owner died.
Museum owner Jeremy Goldsmith said: “We think it is exceptionally rare.
‘I would value it at around £5000+ as these items are very rare and scarce and, to be honest, very difficult to value.
‘When the items were brought to us, the brush was in a box with other items.
‘I noticed the label and that the handle was loose, so I slowly pulled on the handle and to my surprise, the dagger flew out!
“We have investigated these items and it is known that there are very few manufactured for British agents in occupied territories during the Second World War.”
SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE
The SOE was formed by the Minister for Economic Warfare, Hugh Dalton.
Most of the stealthy spy tactics used to outwit Britain’s opponents were devised by a division known as the Special Operations Executive (SOE).
Formed on 22 July 1940 by the Minister of Economic Warfare, Hugh Dalton, following Cabinet approval, the SOE was largely kept secret and was also known as The Baker Street Irregulars, due to the location of its office. in London and Churchill’s secret army.
The SOE operated in all nations in Europe and Southeast Asia that were under the rule of an Axis power.
In addition to the outlandish inventions they came up with, the unit was also responsible for other key, more conventional items commonly used in warfare.
One of these was a timing pencil, which was a stopwatch that allowed troops to detonate a bomb with a controlled delay to allow them to clear the area; times typically ranged from 10 minutes to 24 hours.
The SOE commissioned several types of silent pistols, such as the Welrod, which were key for agents trying to keep a low profile.
The SOE commissioned several types of silent pistols, such as the Welrod (pictured), which were key for officers trying to keep a low profile.
They also produced two submarines, the Welman and the Sleeping Beauty, to place charges on the submarines, but neither were successful.
Both the Navy and RAF had periodic disputes with the SOE over the use of their ships and aircraft, respectively, to transport SOE agents.
After the war, the organization was officially disbanded on 15 January 1946. A memorial to SOE officers was unveiled on Albert Embankment next to Lambeth Palace in London in October 2009.
They also produced two submarines, the Welman (pictured) and the Sleeping Beauty, to place charges on the submarines, but neither were successful.