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“Racer, Spy and the Erotic Model”

Our story today originated as a result of an e-mail from one of our readers, Andrew B. who read our blog Double Agent or Bad Neighbor? (read here). Andrew pointed out that I had “missed a key point, 140 meters away from (where) Déricourt, lived Yvonne Grover-Williams.” Andrew went on to briefly describe Yvonne’s role during the German occupation of Paris.

Andrew was right about me missing this one on Yvonne and her story. To be honest, I had never run across this woman or her husband, William Charles Frederick Grover-Williams, head of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) CHESTNUT circuit in Paris. During the occupation, Yvonne lived at 21, rue Weber which was around the corner from Henri Déricourt’s apartment about five hundred feet away at 58, rue Pergolèse (and next door to the renown Nazi spy catcher, Hugo Bleicher) and not too far from Avenue Foch where various Gestapo units set up their offices including the infamous interrogation and torture cells on the fifth and sixth floors at number 84.

Exterior of Henri Déricourt’s apartment building: 58, rue Pergolèse. Photo by Sandy Ross (2017).
Exterior of Henri Déricourt’s apartment building: 58, rue Pergolèse. Photo by Sandy Ross (2017).

Well, that sent me down, yet another rabbit hole and I discovered a wonderful book by Joe Saward called The Grand Prix Saboteurs. Part of the story includes the years Yvonne spent as Sir William Orpen’s mistress, modeling for his paintings in some very suggestive nude poses. Then, with Orpen’s approval, she married the couple’s chauffeur.

Did You Know?

Did you know that a gruesome discovery was made several years ago in Berlin at the Charité University Hospital? In several of my past blogs, I’ve talked about the Nazi executions (i.e., beheadings) of women prisoners − principally political resisters − at Plötzensee Prison (read The Nazi Guillotine blog here). After their executions, the bodies were sent over to the Berlin Institute of Anatomy at Charité where Dr. Hermann Stieve (1886-1952) was an internationally acclaimed anatomist. His research specialized in the effects of stress on the menstrual cycle. Before the Nazis came to power in 1933, women were not executed in Germany. However, that changed quickly under the Nazi party. Approximately 182 women were tried before a Nazi court (read Hitler’s Blood Judge blog here), found guilty, and executed. Stieve performed dissections on their reproductive organs to support his research. After he was finished, the remains were discretely cremated and disposed of in locations that were never disclosed to the families. Some of these victims included the women of the Red Orchestra resistance organization (read Die Rote Kapelle blog here) while others were convicted of innocuous crimes including distributing leaflets.

Professor Hermann Stieve lecturing an anatomy class. Photo by anonymous (c. 1943). Private collection – DocHu. PD-Author Release. Wikimedia Commons.
Professor Hermann Stieve lecturing an anatomy class. Photo by anonymous (c. 1943). Private collection – DocHu. PD-Author Release. Wikimedia Commons.

In 2016, more than three hundred microscope slides once belonging to Stieve were discovered at Charité. These were samples taken from the bodies he dissected during the war. They were stored in small black boxes with the names of the victims. On 13 May 2019, a small coffin containing the slides was buried at Berlin’s Dorotheenstadt Cemetery in a grave near one of the memorials to the victims of the Nazis. It is hoped that this will give some closure to the victims’ families as well as an effort to ensure the Nazis’ crimes will not be forgotten. Despite joining right-wing organizations during the interwar period (the time between World Wars I and II) and becoming a strong supporter of Hitler, Dr. Stieve never joined the Nazi party. As a result, he was never tried for war crimes.

Procession to bury small coffin containing slides of human tissue from women prisoners executed by the Nazis. Photo by anonymous (c. 2019). Reuters – BBC.
Procession to bury small coffin containing slides of human tissue from women prisoners executed by the Nazis. Photo by anonymous (c. 2019). Reuters – BBC.

Let’s Meet Yvonne Aupicq

Yvonne Aupicq (1896-1973) was born in Lille, France to Joseph Aupicq, a schoolteacher and Laetitia who worked as a housekeeper. Many accounts of Yvonne’s life mention her father was mayor of Lille and her last name was spelled Aubicq. However, her birth certificate and other historical records do not substantiate either of those assertions.

Yvonne was a strikingly beautiful woman with deep blue eyes and golden curly hair. She worked at a hospital during World War I which is where she met the famous Irish portrait artist, Major William Orpen (1878-1931), who was assigned to the war’s Western Front as an official Allied war artist. Learn more about Major William Orpen here. Read More “Racer, Spy and the Erotic Model”

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“Razor Blades and the Billy Boys”

I love a good story about historical gangs. Remember the 2002 movie, Gangs of New York? Two gangs faced off in the slum neighborhood known as the Five Points in 1846. The Irish Catholic “Dead Rabbits” go up against Protestant natives led by William “Bill the Butcher” Cutting for supremacy in the ‘hood. After the Industrial Revolution, British blue-collar industrial cities (e.g., Manchester, Blackburn, and Liverpool) and their economies suffered greatly spawning competing gangs and thugs in the impoverished slums. Following the 1870s, the inner-city of Birmingham fell into extreme poverty and this is the center of our story today about the underworld of the Cheapside Sloggers, Peaky Blinders, and the Sabini Gang.

Movie still from “Gangs of New York.” Bill the Butcher stands in center in the red long coat. Photo by anonymous (c. 2002).
Movie still from “Gangs of New York.” Bill the Butcher stands in center in the red long coat. Photo by anonymous (c. 2002).

Did You Know?

Did you know that in early 1942, the English began broadcasting through the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) requests for photographs and postcards of the coastline of Europe from Norway to the Pyrenees (Spain). The reasons given for needing these images were blatantly false. The images were actually to be used for intelligence on suitable landing sites for the inevitable Allied invasion. Along with intelligence gathered through the efforts of the French Resistance and aerial reconnaissance, the images collected by the BBC during 1942 and 1943 provided the Allies with enough information to determine the coast of Normandy would be the best landing beaches for the invasion on 6 June 1944.

The Peaky Blinders

The Peaky Blinders ruled the streets of Birmingham between the 1890s and 1910. They had beaten their rivals, The Cheapside Sloggers, to take control of the slums. The Peaky Blinders held on until 1930 but it was much smaller and less dangerous. Their activities mirrored American gangsters including protection rackets, smuggling, hijacking, robbery, and bookmaking. The Peaky Blinders were really a small-time street gang as opposed to the highly organized crime syndicates in the United States. Believe it or not, the only crimes they were arrested and prosecuted for were bike theft and home invasion. Expanding their “turf” was the best way to increase revenue and as such, much of their time was spent fighting competing street gangs.

Police mug photos and descriptions of four Peaky Blinder gang members. Photo by anonymous (date unknown).
Police mug photos and descriptions of four Peaky Blinder gang members. Photo by anonymous (date unknown).
Birmingham England. Photo by anonymous (c. 1890s).
Birmingham England. Photo by anonymous (c. 1890s).
Working class Birmingham, U.K. Photo by anonymous (date unknown).
Working class Birmingham, U.K. Photo by anonymous (date unknown).

Some of the prominent Peaky Blinders were Harry “Baby-face” Fowles, Thomas Gilbert (gang leader), Earnest Haynes, David Taylor, and Stephen McHickie. Their distinctive outfits included tailored jackets, button waistcoats, silk scarves, bell-bottom pants, and leather boots (with steel toes). However, the most prominent signature piece was the peaked flat cap. The legend arose that the gang members stitched razor blades in the peaks of their caps and then used the cap as a weapon by headbutting or slashing foreheads. The term “peaky” was a slang word used to describe a flat cap with a peak. Read More “Razor Blades and the Billy Boys”