Vera Leigh Vera Leigh ( born Vera Glass on 17 March 1903 in Leeds , England - died 6 July 1944 in Natzweiler - Struthof ) was a British spy during World War II who assisted the French Resistance . In 1944 she was captured by the Germans and executed . Early life . Abandoned by her parents soon after birth , she was adopted by H . Eugene Leigh , an American racehorse trainer who raced in the United States , winning the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes , and in Europe where he owned stables at Maisons Laffitte near Paris , France . Her plaque of remembrance , re - edited to remove ' was murdered at ' and replaced with ' died for her country ' is mounted to this day on the wall of the Holy Trinity Church in Maisons Laffitte . She had an early ambition to become a jockey , but after completing her education she worked as a dress designer . In 1927 she went into partnership with two friends to establish a ' grand maison ' ( fashion house ) known as Rose Valoie in the Place Vendôme , Paris . French Resistance . After the fall of Paris in the Second World War , Leigh left for Lyon to join her fiancé . She became involved in the French Resistance , helping to run an escape line for Allied servicemen trapped behind enemy lines . In 1942 she used the same escape route to cross the Pyrenees to Spain in the hope of reaching England , but found herself imprisoned for several months at the Miranda de Ebro internment camp near Bilbao . Eventually , with assistance from a British Embassy official , Leigh was released from the camp and completed the journey to England via Gibraltar . Spying . After offering her services for the war effort , Leigh came to the attention of the Special Operations Executive , who recruited her for F Section , and she became an Ensign in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry . She excelled in her training and was known to be " the best shot in the party " . Leigh was dispatched on her first and only mission and returned to France on 14 / 15 May 1943 . She arrived at a field in the Cher Valley , near Tours , one of four new arrivals that night who were received by F Section ' s air movements officer , Henri Dericourt . Her companions were Juliane Aisner , Sidney Jones and Marcel Clech . Aisner was to be a courier for Dericourt ' s Farrier circuit , while Jones ( an arms instructor ) and Clech ( a wireless operator ) were to join Leigh in establishing a new sub - circuit known as ' Inventor ' , which was to work alongside the Prosper network . After receiving further instructions at a safe house in Neuilly - sur - Seine , Leigh took an apartment in Paris and carried messages from Jones in and out of the city as far as the Ardennes . One day in the Gare Saint - Lazare , she met by chance her sister ' s husband , who ran a safe house for Allied airmen as part of an escape line . She increased her own risk by becoming involved with this operation , escorting some of the men through the Parisian streets to their next contacts . She also socialised openly with other agents , including Julienne Aisner . Capture and execution . On 30 October , Leigh was arrested at a café near the Place des Ternes and taken to Fresnes prison . The Germans already knew everything about her activities . On 13 May 1944 , Leigh was taken from Fresnes prison to 84 Avenue Foch , the Paris headquarters of the Sicherheitsdienst . Others taken there at the same time included Andrée Borrel , Odette Sansom , Diana Rowden , Yolande Beekman , Eliane Plewman , Sonya Olschanezky and Madeleine Damerment . On 6 July 1944 , Leigh , Diana Rowden , Andrée Borrel , and Sonya Olschanezky were taken to the concentration camp at Natzweiler . Later that day they were injected with phenol and placed in the crematorium furnace . Vera Leigh posthumously received the King ' s Commendation for Brave Conduct .