Marthe McKenna (1892–1966)

Marthe McKenna, née Cnockaert, was born in Westrozebeke, Belgium. At the start of World War I, she was a medical student at Ghent University, having previously trained as a nurse. She spoke English, French, Flemish, and German, which made her a valued asset to the German military hospital in her occupied hometown where she went to work as a nurse. She was then recruited by British Intelligence and gathered information while nursing and working in her parents’ café. After a bungled sabotage attempt under a German ammunition depot, she was caught and sentenced to death; but thanks to her having received the Iron Cross for her work nursing German soldiers, her sentence was commuted to imprisonment. After the war, she was released and recognized by the British and French governments for her intelligence services. She married John McKenna, a British army officer, and wrote novels as well as her memoirs, I Was a Spy! for which Winston Churchill contributed the foreword. A Hollywood film version of her memoir was released in 1933.