Sonya Butt

Butt and the Headmaster network were based in Sarthe Department. Sonya Juliet Esmée Florence Butt (14 May 1924 – 21 December 2014), also known as Sonia d'Artois, code named Blanche, was an agent of the clandestine Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. SOE agents allied themselves with groups resisting the occupation of their countries by Axis powers. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in occupied countries. The SOE supplied resistance groups with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.

Butt worked as a courier for the Headmaster network of SOE. She was the youngest agent of either sex sent by the SOE to work in France.

Early life

Sonya Butt was born in Eastchurch, Kent on 14 May 1924. Her father, L.A.K. Butt had been a member of the Royal Flying Corps and later became a senior officer of the Royal Air Force. Her mother was Ada Cordon, a French citizen. Ada separated from her husband and she and her two children moved to the south of France when Butt was three years old. With the onset of World War II in 1939, the family moved back to England, living in Woking. She injured her shoulder on arrival. Her cover story was that she was an employee of the Louis Vuitton fashion house, recuperating from a serious illness in Le Mans; but the suitcase containing her designer clothing fell onto a road and was found by German soldiers. Plus, finding the suitcase revealed to the Germans that a female agent had parachuted into France in that region. Butt walked to a safe house near Le Mans to begin work.

Prudence would have dictated a low profile for Butt, but instead she initially chose to be flamboyant, flirting with German soldiers and eating in black market restaurants, beyond the means of normal French people. She became acquainted with the Gestapo chief in Le Mans. He later learned she was a British SOE agent and saluted her for her performance. Butt's apparent friendliness with the Germans would have consequences. After Le Mans was liberated by the Allied armies on 8 August, she was accused by townspeople of being a "horizontal collaborator" with the Germans and tied to a lamp post in preparation for having her head shaved. She was rescued by a resistance member who knew her.

After the Allied invasion and during its slow advance toward Le Mans, Butt delivered messages, cash, and supplies to scattered resistance organizations. Her travel was by bicycle. At night she assisted Hudson in coordinating sabotage operations to hinder the German effort to reinforce and supply its military forces contesting the Allied invasion. After one of the other agents (Francisque Eugene Bec) dropped with her was killed 16 June during a battle between the Maquis and the Germans, Butt took on the additional role of weapons instructor.

In October 1944, France having been liberated, Butt met up with her husband in Paris and returned to England. She had lost during her four-plus months in France.

Honours and awards

Her work and bravery were recognised with the award of the MBE and a Mention in Dispatches. In 1947, he received another very senior decoration, the George Medal (GM) for his work in rescuing an injured missionary in northern Canada. After a tour in Japan, Guy served in the Korean War, before the couple settled down again in Canada. Guy and Sonia (an alternative spelling of her name) had six children, three boys and three girls. In Canada, she also used the name Toni D'Artois.

Butt's husband died at the Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue Veterans hospital in March 1999. Sonya Butt died on 21 December 2014 at the age of 90. She was survived by the couple's six children. She was described, incorrectly, in her obituary of being the last surviving female British spy of the Second World War.