Mary O'Shaughnessy: Undercover Operative

In a quiet corner of Ashton-in-Makerfield’s Jubilee Park sits a bench commemorating Mary O’Shaughnessy, a woman whose courage and determination shaped the Allied effort during the Second World War. Born in 1898, Mary overcame poverty, minimal education, and the loss of her left hand to risk everything in the fight against Nazi occupation.

Originally moving to France to work as a governess, when the Second World War broke out, Mary secretly aided stranded Allied airmen, entirely at her own expense, and provided intelligence to British forces, working with MI5, MI6 and the SOE without holding any official position. Captured in 1944, she endured torture and was under interrogation for 10 days before being sent to Ravensbrück, the infamous women’s concentration camp, where she became one of the only British survivors. After the war, she testified at war crimes trials in Nuremberg and Hamburg, her calm testimony helping to secure justice.

Mary later found solace in Africa, forging new lives and friendships while her extraordinary heroism remained largely unrecognised in Britain. Eight decades later, her remarkable story of bravery, sacrifice, and resilience can finally be told.