The forgotten hero of an outlandish plot to fool the Nazis

AUTHOR ERIN EDWARDS REVEALS THE SECRET ROMANCE BEHIND A CUNNING MILITARY OPERATION THAT HELPED CHANGE THE COURSE OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

- AUTHOR ERIN EDWARDS

was false and give them an advantage. Pam’s love letters could make or break the invasion plans - they needed to be perfect.

Plenty is known about the men behind Operation Mincemeat, but far less information has endured about the women who helped enact it. Jean Leslie, a secretary at MI5, was remembered as being the face of Pam in the photograph included in the briefcase, but the woman who wrote the letters had faded into obscurity.

In his 2010 book on the operation, Ben Macintyre cites an interview with Jean towards the end of her life that identified this second woman as Hester Leggett.

For the next 13 years, that was almost all that was known about her. Jean also remembered her as a spinster, leading to assumptions that she was an older woman.

In the 2021 Colin Firth film, Operation Mincemeat, based on Ben's book, she is in her 70s and played by Penelope Wilton and when writing group SpitLip penned the musical, they made her 49.

But in fact Hester was 37 when she wrote the love letters.