This year's annual celebration of the life of the SOE agent Violette Szabo took place on July 14th at the Violette Szabo GC Museum in Wormelow, Herefordshire.
The programme included presentations by Tania Szabo, Virginia McKenna, Malcolm Rolfe and this Charity's Trustee Paul McCue. Malcolm's father's cousin had been the SOE agent Lilian Rolfe, who was also executed at Ravensbrück concentration alongside Violette Szabo and Denise Bloch This special day also provided the opportunity for Paul McCue and the Charity's chair Louisa Russell to meet Steph Kirkup, a new and extremely enthusiastic volunteer who's recently joined the Charity's team.
Some of Steph's family members also attended, including her father Christopher and grandmother Doreen, who used to live in Penang, Malaysia. While still a baby Christopher had appeared in the classic 1956 film ‘A Town Like Alice’, which had of course also featured Virginia McKenna - and so these two 'film stars’ were unexpectedly reunited more than 60 years later.
With special thanks to Rosemary Rigby, MBE
www.violette-szabo-museum.co.uk