Postcard commemorating Louise de Bettignies and quoting Marshal Joffre's citation in 1916 of her bravery...

Louise de Bettignies (1880-1918) French secret agent (using the pseudonym of Alice Dubois) based in Lille with her assistant, Leonie Vanhoutte; gave significant help to the British army by collecting information from some 80 agents on German troop movements, artillery batteries and munition depots; arrested by the Germans in 1916 and condemned to death; following the international outcry the previous year over the shooting of Edith Cavell, she was reprieved from execution but died of ill health and privation in prison in 1918 at Siegburg; her bravery and heroism were noted by Marshal Joffre in 1916 when he gave the citation for her award of the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d'Honneur, describing her conduct as 'déployant en un mot, un héroisme qui a été rarement surpassé'( displaying, in one word, a rarely surpassed heroism'); the success of her intelligence network is thought to have helped save the lives of over a 1000 British soldiers and led to her being described as the 'Queen of Spies'';