Marie Christine Chilver

Marie Christine Chilver

Marie Chilver when running her animal charity
Born (1920-09-12)12 September 1920
London
Died 5 November 2007(2007-11-05) (aged 87)
Nationality British
Employer SOE
Known for British spy "Agent Fifi"

Marie Christine Chilver (1920–2007) (Latvian: Marija Kristīne Čilvere) also known by the codename Agent Fifi, was a British secret agent in World War II. Originally recruited after escaping the Nazis and helping a British airman return to England, she worked for the Special Operations Executive assessing and testing the security awareness of trainee secret agents.[1][2][3]

Early life

Chilver was born in London, England to an English father, a correspondent for The Times of London,[2] and a Latvian mother.[4] Raised in Latvia, she was educated at a German school in Riga before moving to Paris, France to study at the Sorbonne.[4] When the Germans invaded, British women and children were interned in a number of camps, Chilver in Frontstalag 14 at Besançon. She escaped and reached England in 1941, helping a wounded RAF officer during her journey.[4] Meanwhile her mother and sister had fled to Sweden from Soviet-occupied Latvia, where their property had been confiscated by the Russians. The pilot's name was Flight Lieutentant Simpson and he suspected that Chilver was an expert liar and she was a foreign spy. Simpson believed Chilver was a spy because she was too well fed when they met. His suspicions were found to have no grounds, but Chilver had now come to the British authorities' notice.[4]

Special Operations Executive

"Keep Mum - She's Not so Dumb! - Careless Talk Costs Lives" - One of the posters about secrecy from WWII

In 1942, Chilver joined the SOE, and was given the task of assessing and testing the security awareness of trainee agents while they were on 96-hour training missions in the UK. Her code name was "Fifi" and she had a cover identity of Christine Collard. I t was rumoured that the SOE had agents who would seduce men to persuade them to reveal their secrets, actually Chilvers reports reveal that flattery and attention was all that some trainee agents needed for them to reveal everything they knew. As a result of her reports agents were sacked from SOE.

Chilvers accomplishments were well received and she was given more advanced training. She was trained and was keen to work behind enemy lines but that part of the war was complete before she was available.

Her wartime documents were declassified and released by the National Archives in 2014.[1][3]

Retirement

After leaving the SOE, Chilver lived in Chelsea and later moved to the Wye Valley, living in Lydney, Gloucestershire. She spent much of her retirement with her friend, the widowed Jean "Alex" Felgate, a retired SOE intelligence officer. Chilver founded Dzīvnieku Draugs ("Animal Friends") in Latvia, an animal charity and sanctuary. She died on 5 November 2007.

Bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 "Files reveal WW2 secret 'Agent Fifi' test for spies". BBC News. 17 September 2014.
  2. 1 2 Cahal Milmo (17 September 2014). "Revealed after 75 years of secrecy: 'Fifi' the glamorous WW2 special agent who tested British spies' resolve". The Independent.
  3. 1 2 Jonathan Cole (17 September 2014). "'Our Special Agent': 'Fifi' and the Special Operations Executive". National Archives.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Anita Singh and Gregory Walton (17 September 2014). "Revealed: identity of Fifi the stunning wartime spy". Daily Telegraph.(Printed version, page 3)
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 4/13/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.