Rosemary Rigby was thrilled to welcome school children from St Weonards to the Violette Szabo Museum at Wormelow on May 1st.

The pupils were reenacting an activity which Violette, an SOE heroine of World War II, took part in 70 years ago.

In the first week of May, 1944 Violette accompanied a group of local children for a walk to gather spring flowers. During her visit to Cartref, the house at Wormelow where Rosemary now lives, Violette also went with her cousins to the May Fayre in Hereford. She always enjoyed showing off her skills on the firing range. She was a crack shot and this was just one of the reasons she was selected as an SOE.

Rosemary showed the children some of the exhibits in the museum and told them about the young woman who gave her life in service for her country.

She also told the Gazette the story of Violette’s lost earring. It was while Violette was on her visit to the May Fayre that she lost a bright red earring which she had bought to celebrate her safe return from her first mission. Sadly during her second mission she was captured and later shot at Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany.

On Sunday, June 24th Rosemary will once again organise a memorial picnic in honour of Violette.

The event will also recognise that it is 100 years since the end of WWI, a centenary since Suffragette’s achieved votes for some women and the Royal Air Force and the 150th anniversary of the RNIB.

Mrs Szabo was born Violette Bushell to an English father and French mother, and brought up in London. At the outbreak of the war, she joined the Land Army, then met and married an officer of the French Foreign Legion, Etienne Szabo, who was killed in action at El Alamein. He never lived to see their baby daughter, Tania.

A few months after her husband died, Violette volunteered for the Special Operations Executive. Violette’s daughter, Tania, is a faithful supporter of the museum and attends the annual picnic regularly, along with Virginia Mckenna, who played Violette in the film Carve Her Name With Pride. See this week’s paper for more stories like this, available in shops and as a Digital Edition now