U.K. spy held sway in Africa

others:
http://news.scotsman.com/obituaries/Obituary-Daphne-Park-Baroness-Park.6186737.jp
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article7078662.ece
photo from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7076407.ece
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7521495/Baroness-Park-of-Monmouth-the-Queen-of-Spies-dies-aged-88.html

Daphne Park, aged 23, in 1944 in her FANY uniform

PARK--Daphne Sybil Margaret Desiree, Baroness Park of Monmouth CMG OBE died on Wednesday, 24 March, 2010, aged 88. Revered, respected and loved by friends, family and colleagues in the UK and around the world. Funeral on Tuesday, 6 April at 2:30pm, Somerville College Chapel, Oxford. Memorial Service to be announced later.
Published in New York Times on March 30, 201


Daphne Park 1921-2010


From THE TIMES OF LONDON

Daphne Park was once called the greatest woman intelligence officer in the world. It was just the sort of remark to make her angry, not because she disliked being acknowledged as a spy but because of the female tag.

"Why woman intelligence officer?" Ms. Park would ask. Within Britain's Secret Intelligence Service or MI6, where she worked for 30 years, Daphne Margaret Sybil Désirée Park became a legend. Ms. Park, who died March 24 at age 88, retired in 1979 after a career in which she avoided summary execution on several occasions by quick thinking. She then forged new careers as Principal of Somerville College, Oxford and as a member of the House of Lords.

As an SIS officer, she enjoyed extraordinary influence, especially in Africa. Ms. Park was raised in Africa and won a scholarship to Oxford. In 1959, SIS posted her to the Belgian Congo, the year before it became independent. She once escaped death after being seized by soldiers who claimed that a tape in her handbag was a smuggled recording of Patrice Lumumba, one of the Congo's new leaders, who was then in jail, calling on his people to rise up.