#Madeleine Damerment

[alanmalcherhistorian]

Yolande Beekman (nee Unternahrer) SOE Wireless Operator: French Section

Yolande Beekman Yolande Unternahrer was born in Paris to a Swiss family in 1911 and moved to London as a child. After the declaration of war in 1939 she enlisted into the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAFFs) where she trained as a wireless operator. Due to her language skills, she spoke fluent English, French, German and Italian, Yolande came to the attention of the Special Operations Executive…

[valkyries-things]

MADELEINE DAMERMENT // SOE AGENT

“She was a French spy in WWII who served in the French Resistance and SOE with the codenames of Solange and Dancer. She was to be a courier for SOE’s Bricklayer circuit in France but was arrested by the Gestapo, who knew she was coming. She was subsequently executed at the Dachau concentration camp.”

[belladonna-wright]

November 16 – Character #Inspo: Find five existing fictional characters who remind you of your character (or who inspired your character).

Danny/Debbie Ocean - The Ocean's Films

This is not just to completement the fact Nick is a total Rusty. Also this counts as one because they are exactly the same character template ok? And it's not just because on the surface these smooth con artists are incredibly good at lying and sneaking and slight of hand. So much so I directly borrowed this trick for one of my tasks earlier this month.

Under it all they are driven by emotion. No matter how much they wrap it up in justifications of why their marks would be good targets, they are driven by their own feelings; love, revenge, justice.

They're also simultaneously incredibly loyal and incredibly vengeful people, which compliments Jessie very nicely because she has such a similar relationship to people in her life. Her friends she loves and cherishes and protects. Her enemies, she never forgives.

[Bonus Nessie vibes]

Eve Mansour - SAS: Rogue Heroes / Margaux - Transatlantic

These ladies are here as a tribute to the very real female intelligence officers of the world wars; women like Madeleine Damerment, Virginia Hall, Mary Katherine Herbert, Noor Inayat Khan, Phyllis Latour and many many more.

I decided early on I wanted to engage with what the realities of being an immortal in this world would look like, and her engagement with being used as an intelligence operative really 'fit' to me when constructing her character. Because I don't want to glorify that. It was hell. It was horrific. Many of these intelligence operatives died horribly. But they knew that and they did it anyway because they knew it was the right thing, and also because it opened doors that had never been possible for women before this chaos opened them up.

But our fictional ladies are both very interesting minor characters. And I don't think its a coincidence they are both women of colour. For practical reasons (blending in in different countries), but also because of their percieved status as being slightly outside contemporary European society. Which is something Jessie very much lived through.

So two interesting scenes I want to highlight for Jessie are; Eve nursing her lover's horrible ulcers from being sand blasted in the desert - a scene in which she is very focused, very business-like, and he can't see the very real emotion on her face. And for Margaux, I can't find a gifset, but there is a scene in which she is ruthlessly forced denying help to our more major characters. Because she cannot jeopardise her mission and her duty to help single individuals outside her remit.

Patsy Mount - Call the Midwife

Patsy, oh my Patsy. A MASSIVE influence on my character design for Jessie is the brilliant character of Patsy Mount. I could write forever but I will try to limit it to a sensible amount.

Patsy underwent horrible really awful things in her youth, and when we meet her we'd never know it. She is this closed off, ruthlessly efficient and effective woman who is an exceptional nurse but is often criticised for not caring. Until we see her dealing with a case that brings back horrible traumatic events of her childhood. She is practical, efficient, follows all the correct courses of action... and then she sneaks into her lovers room, kneels at her bed and weeps.

That sort of guardedness is very Jessie. Her dealing with the Demon attack reminded me of that, a lot. Effective, proactive, and silently, internally, devastated.

Secondly her whole relationship with Delia - being a lesbian character in the 1950s? No laughing game. But there can still be beauty and love and joy in it. There can be teasing and joking ("You want to see Anita Eckberg in that fountain just as much as I do" lives in my head forever), there can be heart-rending realities of their situation. But there's love too. And that inspired a lot of Jessie's queerness

Edmund Pevensie - The Chronicles of Narnia

Hear me out. Galaxy brain engaged. Edmund is a character all about changing and growing from your mistakes and your experiences. I think there's a lot of parallels there. Now don't get be wrong, obviously Jessie is still very morally grey. She's not going to be awarded the title 'the just' any time soon. But both of them are rash and headstrong in their youth, people who feel closed out by the society around them. And so they lash out, they rebel, they desperately seek validation in all the wrong places and as a result they cause some very bad things to happen.

Then you have to live with that. I always remember how Edmund is described. 'A graver and quieter man than King Peter, and great in council and judgement.' I think Jessie also has that sense of perspective that goes beyond her seeming age, and despite all her rashness, there is a wisdom in that.

Also they're both smart-arses.

Richard 'The Shade' Swift - Stargirl (DC Comics Universe)

Sometimes ... the campy 'are they a bad guy or aren't they' characters are the best ...

Simple.

Older than they look, old-fashioned, a little bit disdainful and exhausted but eventually convinced to to the right thing? A big Jessie mood.

Inspo?

Jessie versus 'The Morey Clan' (jk she'll show up just like he does she'll just complain about it)

And if anyone's going to mess with them, or her chosen ones, they'd better remember... there is someone capable of killing at will hiding beneath that charming surface.

[ironcites]

The Heroine Spies of England’s Special Operations Executive Office in World War 2: PART 1

Yvonne Cormeau - British field agent and radio operator, shot in the leg but evaded capture.

Violette Szabo - French ensign. Captured and executed in Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Yolande Beekman - British ensign and wireless operator. Captured and executed in Dachau Concentration camp.

Odette Hallowes - “interrogated by the Gestapo fourteen times ... subjected to torture. Her back was scorched with a red-hot poker and all of her toenails were pulled out.” Odette SURVIVED capture.

Madeleine Damerment - French ensign. Captured and executed in Dachau concentration camp.

Andrée Borrel - French Lieutenant and courier. Captured and executed in  Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.

Denise Bloch - French radio operator. Captured and executed in Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Lise de Baissac - British liason officer. Evaded capture in France to liberation.

Sonya Butt - British assistant section officer. Evaded capture in France to liberation.

Muriel Byck - British field agent and guerilla commander. Past away during the war by sickness from being exposed to the elements. 

[alanmalcherhistorian]

The German wireless deception leading to the deaths of three SOE agents sent to France.

The German wireless deception leading to the deaths of three SOE agents sent to France.

On the night of 28/29 February 1944, SOE agents France Antelme on his third mission to France, wireless operator Lionel Lee and Madeleine Damerment arrived by parachute near the city of Chartres to start a clandestine circuit called Bricklayer. It is now believed sometime in late 1943 Canadian agents Frank Pickersgill and Ken Macalister had been arrested during which their wireless and codes were…