Carve Her Name With Pride: Violette Szabo, the SOE, and the French Resistance
Dr Robert Pike
- Regions:
- Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Hereford, West Mids, Staffordshire, Shropshire, South East, South West, East of England, London, East Midlands, Yorkshire & Humber, North West, North East, Wales
- Notice Period:
- Short (maybe less than one month's notice)
- Type:
- Professional
- Fee:
- Expensed: From £60 plus expenses
- Category:
- History
- Updated:
- 18th May 2026
- Tagged:
- WW2 | French Resistance | Second World War | Women At War
This talk examines the life and wartime service of Violette Szabo, one of the best-known female agents of Britain’s Special Operations Executive, whose story later became immortalised in the book and film Carve Her Name with Pride. The presentation explores Szabo’s journey from her Anglo-French upbringing and wartime enlistment to her deployment into occupied France in support of SOE’s links with the French Resistance. Particular attention will be given to her first mission in the wake of the D-Day landings, during which she successfully helped establish communications and support resistance activity in German-occupied territory. The talk then follows her second and ultimately disastrous mission to Sussac in the Limousin in June 1944, examining the circumstances of her capture, imprisonment and deportation to the concentration camp system, where she ultimately lost her life. Through Szabo’s experiences, the talk reflects on the risks, realities and human cost of clandestine warfare and SOE cooperation with the French Resistance in occupied France
Views: 683 | Enquiries: 3About Dr Robert Pike
I have authored two books about the Second World War and the occupation in France. Defying Vichy: Blood, Fear and French Resistance (The History Press, 2018) and Silent Village: The Life and Death of Oradour-sur-Glane ( The History Press, 2021) published in French as Oradour s'est tu: Le destin tragique d'un village français 10 juin 1944 (Flammarion,2024) . I gained an ESRC-funded MSc at Cardiff in 2021 with a dissertation titled 'From pragmatism to protection: How and why were anti-Semitic narratives contested in a semi-rural region of Vichy France?'. I have written articles for History Today and BBC Magazine, contributed to others in The Telegraph and The Daily Mail (UK), and The Washington Post and New York Times (US). My work on Oradour-sur-Glane has led to television appearances on France 2 and M6. I have given conferences in Limoges and Oradour-sur-Glane, and many venues in the UK including the Gloucester History Festival. I have also contributed papers to conferences about resistance at Oxford University and Cardiff University. www.robertpike.co.uk
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