Giliana Balmaceda

She was born in Chile in 1910.[3] She had worked as an actress in Paris, where she met Englishman, Victor Gerson, a dealer in fine rugs and carpets, whom she married.[2]

On 18 June 1940 at the signing of the armistice, the couple escaped to England, where both joined the Special Operations Executive.[4] Her husband, Victor Gerson, proposed setting up a line of helpers to simplify the exit and entrance of SOE agents, and Balmaceda volunteered to reconnoitre the possibility.[5] In May 1941 she was sent to occupied France and returned through Spain in late June 1941, and was the first female SOE agent to enter occupied France.[6] She proved adept at distinguishing between those who genuinely wanted to help escapees and those who claimed loyalty to the allies even though they were informing the counterintelligence police.[5] She spent three months, ostensibly on holiday, travelling freely on her Chilean passport in Lyons and Vichy, collecting a long list of intelligence and the names and addresses of those who were willing to help and who could be trusted.[7] She preferred to find older couples who were usually at home and who were willing to share a spare bedroom for the cause. She returned through Spain and then in to the British base at Gibraltar.[8] She had also collected a lot of information and copies of administrative documents used in occupied France, such as ration cards. These could be reproduced in London for use by agents on clandestine missions in France.[2]

On 21 April 1942, her husband, Victor Gerson landed by submarine at Antibes to organise the VIC Escape Line,[9] which provided an escape route from France via Spain back to England for downed airmen, SOE agents, and others.[10]