Larger Than Life: Christine Granville
August 6, 2006 4:56 PM Subscribe
The Real-Life Vesper Lynde. Known to history as Christine Granville, Krystyna Skarbek was first Polish nobility and later Churchill's favorite spy. Undaunted by weather, Christine skied over the Tatras from Hungary to Poland to gather intelligence and participated in the liberation of France. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre, but found herself ill-suited to normal employment, and worked as a saleswoman at Harrods and as a telephonist before becoming an oceanliner stewardess. Along the way, Christine met Ian Fleming, who may have based his first "Bond Girl" on the intrepid spy. Want to know more? Read her recently republished biography or order her file from the Briish National Archives.
On the Rauhine she met, George Muldowney, a bathroom steward. Muldowney fell in love with her. She rejected his advances and on 15th June, 1952, he stabbed her in the heart with a knife.
Defeat Nazi Germany and later meet one's end at the hands of a 'bathroom steward'.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 6:50 PM on August 6, 2006
Defeat Nazi Germany and later meet one's end at the hands of a 'bathroom steward'.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 6:50 PM on August 6, 2006
Dude, 2 posts in a row about spies? What are the odds?
posted by geekhorde at 9:00 PM on August 6, 2006
posted by geekhorde at 9:00 PM on August 6, 2006
Being stabbed through the heart was at least a dramatic finish. The awful part was that she "worked as a saleswoman at Harrods and as a telephonist before becoming an oceanliner stewardess." Too many of us are swallowed up like that.
posted by pracowity at 12:09 AM on August 7, 2006
posted by pracowity at 12:09 AM on August 7, 2006
"Dude, 2 posts in a row about spies? What are the odds?"
I suspect one of them spied on the other during preview.
Oh ho! Ah ha ha!
posted by Baby_Balrog at 6:35 AM on August 7, 2006
I suspect one of them spied on the other during preview.
Oh ho! Ah ha ha!
posted by Baby_Balrog at 6:35 AM on August 7, 2006
No one knows or is telling, but there is some suspicion that she was working as a spy of some sort whilst also being a stewardess.
posted by Medieval Maven at 4:05 PM on August 7, 2006
posted by Medieval Maven at 4:05 PM on August 7, 2006
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