06/06/2026
To commemorate the 81st Anniversary of the D-Day Landings, we are sharing the story of Anne Ponsonby, a Special Operations Executive (SOE) transmitter during the Second World War (Born December 23rd, 1924). Her father, Brigadier FH Maynard, was in the RAF and found Anne work at RAF Cranwell during the war. There, she heard her friend was joining the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), and in August 1943 she signed up too, hoping to learn to drive. However, by WW2, the FANY (formed in 1907 as a horse-riding, nursing auxiliary) had become a recruiting ground for suitable young women as agents in the field or wireless operators. Anne soon found herself signing the Official Secrets Act!
The SOE occupied several stately homes, using them as training centres, research and development sites, and offices. Over the next few months at Station 53b (Poundon House, Oxfordshire), Anne practiced with a wireless transmitter for 8 hours a day until she could send and receive 30 words a minute (a 'word' is a block of five coded letters and a space in Morse Code). Anne served at STS 53a (Grendon Hall near Aylesbury) between 1943-1945, where she listened to specific frequencies at scheduled times for coded transmissions from field agents. The agents were frequently in danger and at risk of being caught, so Anne had to receive the messages accurately and not ask for repetitions.
To her shock, while she was listening on June 6th, 1944, she heard an uncoded transmission: “Vive la France, vive l’Angleterre, vive les Allies,” repeated again and again. Calling her colleagues to listen, they realised that it was D-Day, the start of the Allied landings in France. They celebrated with warm beer and Spam sandwiches!
After the war, Anne was discharged in 1945 and was then recruited to MI6! In 2015-16, Anne successfully lobbied for herself and her FANY colleagues to finally be awarded the 1939-45 War Service Medal. In 2019, she was also awarded the Légion d’honneur medal by the French government.
Anne passed away on October 3rd, 2023, in Wi******er. We would like to extend our thanks to her daughters Belinda and Emma, for allowing us to share her story.
