In 1944, 23-year-old Phyllis Latour Doyle parachuted into Nazi-occupied France as a secret agent for Britain’s Special Operations Executive, disguised herself as a teenage French girl. Her cover? Selling embroidery patterns door to door — and sometimes soap — while collecting intelligence for the Allies.

To stay one step ahead of the Gestapo, she hid over 100 encoded messages in the most unlikely place: a piece of silk wrapped around a knitting needle, which she slid into a flat shoelace used as a hair tie.

By day, she pedaled from village to village, chatting with German soldiers, taking notes, and never raising suspicion. By night, she used Morse code equipment to transmit intelligence that helped coordinate Allied attacks and disrupt Nazi operations.

She never talked about what she’d done in wartime France—not even to her family. It wasn’t until her children found her story online that she agreed to accept her medals.

“I never told a soul. It wasn’t something you boasted about.” – Phyllis Latour

In 2014, the French government awarded her the Légion d’Honneur for her bravery. She died in August 2023 at the age of 102.