LONDON -- Odette Hallowes, 82, a British agent tortured by the Gestapo in World War II and the first woman awarded Britain's George Cross, died March 13 at her home in Walton-on-Thames. The cause of death was not reported.
To protect each other, they pretended to be married. Her 1946 George Cross citation credited her with saving Churchill from a firing squad by convincing the Gestapo that she was responsible for the couple's being in France.
Mrs. Hallowes was interrogated at Fresnes prison in Paris, where her back was burned with a hot iron and her toenails were wrenched out. She refused to identify two agents sought by the Gestapo.
She married Churchill in 1947 after the death of her first husband, Roy Sansom. After her marriage to Churchill ended in divorce, she married another veteran of the Special Operations Executive, Geoffrey Hallowes.
Mrs. Hallowes was born Odette Brailly in France. Her story was made into a 1950 film, "Odette," starring Anna Neagle.
In 1966, M.R.D. Foot raised doubts about the value of her wartime work. He wrote in his history of the Special Operations Executive that the couple found that "life could still be easy for people with plenty of money on the Riviera." He suggested that reports about her torture may have been exaggerated.
Mrs. Hallowes was outraged. Foot said he was summoned to meet with her and her attorney and was given a lecture about libel. In an interview March 17, Foot said: "Of course she was a genuinely brave woman. You couldn't go to France during the war without being brave -- any agent was risking his or her life."
In addition to her husband, Mrs. Hallowes's survivors include three daughters from her first marriage.
