A pensioner has been awarded France’s highest honour for her service during the Second World War.
Anne Ponsonby, 94, was presented with the Legion d’Honneur for using Morse code to receive and send messages to the French Resistance.
During the war, Mrs Ponsoby trained as a wireless operator and supported the Special Operations Executive (SOE), who worked with the French resistance against Nazi occupiers.
The medal was presented by the Commandant of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), Brigadier Philippa Lorimer MBE.
She said: “Anne, on behalf of the French Government and the people of France, it is our privilege and huge honour to be the people who formally present you with your Legion d’Honneur medal.
“I know that I speak on behalf of all member of the FANY, past and present, and your family and friends when I say that we are enormously proud of the work you did as a young woman in the corps all those years ago.
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“I am sure at the time it did not seem that the work you were doing was vital to the liberation of France or the successful outcome of the war, but history tells us otherwise and the work that you and your colleagues did was incredibly important.
“Indeed the sacrifice of your whole generation means that my generation and my children’s generation has grown up in peace and for that we will be eternally grateful.”
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Mrs Ponsonby, who has three children, nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren was thrilled to have been awarded the honour.
The pensioner from Winchester, Hants, said: “I am thrilled and honoured.
“It is a beautiful insignia and I will wear it with pride.
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“The war was a testing time for both France and the United Kingdom and together we achieved the liberation of France and set Europe on the road to peace, which we have now enjoyed for over 70 years.
“I am so proud to have played my part in helping the French nation recover its liberty.”
Anne’s children, Belinda Mitchell, John Ponsonby and Emma Parry, added: “Mum has been an enormous inspiration to us all our lives and we are so thrilled that after so many years she is being awarded this most prestigious of medals.
“We are incredibly proud of her.”
Mrs Ponsonby joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry aged just 18 and trained as a wireless operator.
She spent the war working at various signal stations in the UK - sending and receiving messages from the French Resistance.
She said: “It’s difficult to explain just how patriotic everyone was back then. If I could have signed up earlier I would have.
"I had to learn Morse code and send coded messages containing 30 words per minute which is fast.
"It was a high-pressure role because the Resistance agents were constantly in danger with little time to communicate."
In the run up to D Day in 1944 Mrs Ponsonby was based at Grendon Hall signals station in Buckinghamshire, the training base for SOE agents destined for France.
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Along with her colleagues, she was not allowed out in the week leading up the invasion.
She said: "We actually knew when D-Day was and so we weren't allowed out - security was very, very tight.
"We were told we weren't allowed out of camp for at least a week before D-Day.
"I remember that first day, when the first landings were made, we got messages en clair from the French, saying 'Vivent Les Allies, Vive La France, Vive la Grande Bretagne'."
"Messages like that. It was terribly exciting, it really was, because we knew they had actually landed and that the resistance knew that.
"That was fantastic."
Mrs Ponsonby was a housewife and raised her three children after she served during World War Two.
Her husband Myles, who worked for the diplomatic service, passed away ten years ago.
Her daughter Emma Parry helped launch UK armed forces and military veterans charity 'Help For Heroes' in 2007.
Mrs Ponsonby was desperate to do her bit and raised £10,000 for the cause.
She added: “With so many of my relatives involved in the military over the years I know how important it is to look after our forces."
