Alix D'Unienville

Alix D'Unienville (born 8 May 1918) was a member of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II and worked as a courier for the French Section.

D'Unienville was born in Mauritius, but moved to France aged 6. Commissioned (rank of Lieutenant) in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, she commenced SOE training at Beaulieu in June 1943. On 31 March 1944 she parachuted into Loir-et-Cher from a Halifax aircraft. Her alias was Aline Bowden and cover story was she was born on the island of Réunion in 1922 and moved to France in 1938 to study and was now the wife of a prisoner of war.

Working in Paris using the codenames Myril and Marie-France, she was successful until her arrest on 6 June 1944 when she was arrested with Tristan outside Bon Marché in Paris. She was taken to Avenue Foch for interrogation and was searched. She was held in Fresnes prison in solitary confinement. She pretended to be "mentally derranged" to escape from Fresnes and to be transferred to Saint-Anne hospital. This plan was foiled by the Gestapo, who transferred her to La Pitié, a place associated with brutal atrocities of the Gestapo.