Maureen Patricia O'Sullivan (3 January 1918 – 5 March 1994) was a member of the

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

(SOE) during World War II and worked as a wireless operator for the French Section. Born in

Dublin, Ireland Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cen ...

in 1918, the daughter of John Aloysius O'Sullivan (1873–1949), an Irish journalist and a German mother, Johanna Repen (1889–1919), who died when Paddy was only 15 months old, she began her schooling at St Louis Convent in Dublin. At the age of seven she was sent to live with an aunt in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. There she attended convent school in

Coutrai Kortrijk ( , ; vls, Kortryk or ''Kortrik''; french: Courtrai ; la, Cortoriacum), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It is the capital and larges ...

and then the Athenée Royale in

Ostend Ostend ( nl, Oostende, ; french: link=no, Ostende ; german: link=no, Ostende ; vls, Ostende) is a coastal city and municipality, located in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerk ...

. At the beginning of the war she was a nurse working at Highgate Hospital in London. She joined the

WAAF WAAF may refer to: * w3af, (short for web application attack and audit framework), an open-source web application security scanner * Women's Auxiliary Air Force, a British military service in World War II ** Waaf, a member of the service * WAAF (AM ...

on 7 July 1941, as an

Aircraft Handler An aircraft handler is a member of the Aircraft Handling branch in the Royal Navy of the UK Armed Forces. Aircraft Handlers are responsible for the safe movement, launching (taking off) and recovering (landing) of all aircraft onboard ships wit ...

General Duties, and was later promoted to Section officer. After being recruited by the SOE due to her French language fluency, and becoming a fully fledged wireless operator, Paddy was dropped to the FIREMAN circuit (network) near

Limoges Limoges (, , ; oc, Lemòtges, locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region ...

few weeks after Eileen Nearne's arrival on March 22/23 March 1944. The weather was extremely foggy and the pilot suggested that they return to England, but Paddy was determined and she jumped. Landing heavily, she was temporarily concussed, but always said her life was saved by the 2 million francs strapped to her back. Paddy's alias was Micheline Marcelle Simonet and her cover story was that she was a 'dame de compagnie' of a doctor in Paris, where she helped the doctor in the surgery as well as with his children; she was taking one month's leave to look for a lost Belgian parent in the Creuse area. Following successful work with the FIREMAN circuit, Paddy returned to England on 5 October 1944. After her cover was blown in June 1945 she was posted to

Force 136 Force 136 was a far eastern branch of the British World War II intelligence organisation, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Originally set up in 1941 as the India Mission with the cover name of GSI(k), it absorbed what was left of SOE's Or ...

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

as a liaison officer to work with the French.

Honours and awards

She was awarded the

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

Civil, which was gazetted on 4 September 1945, she was also awarded the

Croix de guerre 1939–1945 (France) Croix (French for "cross") may refer to: Belgium * Croix-lez-Rouveroy, a village in municipality of Estinnes in the province of Hainaut France * Croix, Nord, in the Nord department * Croix, Territoire de Belfort, in the Territoire de Belfort depa ...

Order of the British Empire (Civil) Ribbon

Family

She settled in England and went on to marry Eric Alvey, a chartered accountant, and lived near Ilkley,

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

; the couple had two sons, John and Robin.

References

"The mystery of Ireland's lethally seductive spy", independent.ie, 21 March 2002
{{DEFAULTSORT:Osullivan, Paddy 1918 births 1994 deaths Female wartime spies Special Operations Executive personnel Women's Auxiliary Air Force officers Members of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) Place of death missing Military personnel from Dublin (city) World War II spies from Ireland