Muriel Byck (1918-1944)

DOSSIER:
Muriel Tamara Byck, daughter of Jacques Byck and Luba Besia Golinska, was born on 4 Jun 1918 in Ealing, London, England.

CODE NAMES:
Michele
Violette

Her SOE file revealed that from 1923-24 she had lived with her family in Wiesbaden, Germany. The family must have moved to France in 1926 as she went to school at the Lycee de Jeunes Filles, St Germain, France, before moving to England in 1930.

Muriel worked as a secretary from 1936-38 in London before becoming an Assistant Stage Manager at the Gate Theatre in 1937. At the outbreak of war, she joined the Red Cross as a voluntary worker and the WVS. She moved to Torquay in 1941 where she worked as National Registration Clerk and was also an ARP Warden.

She joined the WAAF in December 1942 as a General Duties clerk, working in the records office where she was later promoted to the rank of Section officer. As she spoke excellent French, she was recruited into the SOE in July 1943. She began initial training in September 1943 at Winterfold House, Cranleigh, in Surrey. From there she proceeded to para-military training at Meoble Lodge, Morar, Invernesshire until October and wireless operator training at Thame Park, Oxfordshire in November and December 1943. She was chosen by Major Philippe de Vomécourt to be his assistant.

Muriel was graded 'average' as a General Agent by her SOE instructors, but gained a high intelligence rating (eight out of nine), and high grades for Morse and Mechanical Aptitude. She was described by her instructors on her SOE file as: a quiet, bright, attractive girl, keen, enthusiastic and intelligent. Alert but not very practical and as yet lacks foresight and thoroughness. She is, however, self-possessed, independent and persistent, and warm in her feelings for others... a girl of considerable promise who will require much training to help her to overcome her lack of experience, her complete ignorance of what the work really involves and her general guilelessness. Her temperament would appear to be suitable for work as a courier, or possibly propaganda.

After three aborted attempts to fly from Tempsford airfield, she parachuted into France on the night of 8/9 Apr 1944 with three other SOE agents: Captain Stanisław Makowski, Captain C.S. Hudson (who was her CO until de Vomecourt arrived by plane) and Captain G.D. Jones. Given the code name Violette, she worked on the SOE Ventriloquist circuit as the wireless operator and trained any wireless operators recruited locally, informing London with the details about these new recruits so they could be given code names and status. She was additionally tasked with establishing post-boxes for contact should wireless transmission break down.

Muriel lodged at a safe house in the town of Salbris owned by French Resistant Antoine Vincent. She sent her transmissions back to England from a shed behind a garage in Limoges where German trucks and cars came in for repairs. While at this location, she aroused the suspicion of a German soldier, but by the time the local Gestapo returned she had moved to a new location. She changed her cover story, posing as a Parisian secretary on sick leave. To disguise her night time activities sending messages though to London, she said she had to take medicine every few hours even at night. She later moved to the home of a blacksmith in Vernou.

As she worked extremely hard sending her transmissions, paleness and fatigue were expected. However, after she collapsed at the blacksmith's house and lost consciousness, it was decided she required urgent medical attention. De Vomécourt took her to a Doctor known to the Resistance as safe; he diagnosed meningitis and told them that hospitalization was her only chance. This posed a problem as the Germans kept a check on hospital admissions and scrutinized the papers of all people entering. It was decided that the cover story was Muriel and de Vomécourt (as her uncle) were evacuees from Paris. She was admitted to Romorantin Hospital which was run by nuns. and given a lumbar puncture. But very shortly afterwards she died on 23 May 1944.

She was buried in Romorantin and for many years her grave was tended by the local people. The townsfolk of Romorantin commemorated the Anniversary of her death as a heroine of the Resistance. Later, her grave was moved to the Pornic War Cemetery, France with the other dead from the British services.