WOMAN DECORATED

Grey River Argus, 26 August 1946, Page 2

WOMAN DECORATED

Defied Gestapo LONDON, August 20. A citation in the London Gazette tells the story of one of the war’s greatest heroines who now lives in Kensington and io the mother* of three children. She has been awarded the George Cross to add to the M.B.E. awarded last year. She is Mrs. Odette Marie Calina Samson, who, after she and others had parachuted into enemy-occupied France for a special mission, refused to betray her comrades despite most brutal Nazi torture. The citation says; “The Gestapo, after Mrs. Samson was captured, tried to make'her disclose her comrades’ whereabouts, especially those of the radio operator and another British officer who were of the greatest value to the resistance movement. Members of the Gestapo seared her back with red-hot irons and pulled out all her nails. Mrs. Samson continued to refuse to speak throughout at least 14 interrogations, thereby not only saving her comrades’ lives but enabling them to continue to work for the resistance. “She also drew attention to herself and away from ,the commanding officer* by saying that he was her husband and only came to France because “he had insisted. Mrs. Samson during two years of captivity displayed courage, endurance, and self-sacrifice of the highest order/’ She was made an M.B.E. last October for services in France during the occupation. She has been sent to hospital many times since her repatriation last year. A friend described her as slim, petite, and attractive, and always immaculately dressed. When recently she bought a parachute to make it into clothes, she looked wistfully at it and remarked: “I jumped many times with one of these.”