Anne-Marie Walters

Anne-Marie Walters
Anne-Marie Walters
Nickname(s)	Colette
Born	16 March 1923; Geneva, Switzerland
Died	2 October 1998 (aged 75); La Baume-de-Transit, France
Allegiance	United Kingdom; France
Service/branch	Women's Auxiliary Air Force, Special Operations Executive, French Resistance
Years of service	1941-1944
Rank	Section Officer, Field agent (courier)
Unit	SOE F Section, Wheelwright network
Awards	MBE, Croix de Guerre, Médaille de la Reconnaissance Français
Other work	Author, Editor and Translator

Walters and the Wheelwright circuit were based in Gers Department.

Anne-Marie Walters MBE (16 March 1923 – 2 October 1998), code name Colette, was a WAAF officer recruited into the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization during World War II. SOE agents allied themselves with groups resisting the occupation of their countries by Axis powers. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in occupied countries. The SOE supplied resistance groups with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.

Walters was a courier for the Wheelwright network, working from January 1944 until August 1944 in southwestern France. Twenty-years old when she arrived in France, she was, next to Sonya Butt, the youngest female agent of SOE.

One day I am sent to Auch to collect blank and stamped travel permits, then next I go to Tarbes to take some money to a man who works there. The third I cycle to take a message to the wireless operator or someone else. Then I'm off for three days to Tarbes and Montréjeau where I have to wait for a reply.^[1]

Walters, on the life of a courier in occupied France

My family might not have recognized me had they seen me sitting in a third-class carriage with a beret tipped low over my forehead, wearing an old raincoat and generally looking half-witted while eating a chunk of bread and sausages.^[2]

Walters, on the life of a courier in occupied France

^ Escott, Beryl E. (2010), The Heroines of SOE, Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, p. 137
^ Gildrea, Robert (2015), Fighters in the Shadows, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, p. 174

[1] Escott, Beryl E. (2010), The Heroines of SOE, Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, p. 137

[2] Gildrea, Robert (2015), Fighters in the Shadows, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, p. 174

[1]

[2]