A World War II Danish Resistance leader, who grew up in Fermanagh, will be commemorated by the Ulster History Circle in Derrylin this Saturday, November 11.

Monica de Wichfield (nee Massy-Beresford) will have a blue plaque unveiled at Kinawley Parish Church, Derrylin by Lady Dunleath of Ballywalter, Co. Down.

Monica Massy-Beresford was born on July 12, 1894, at No. 7, Eaton Square, London, the daughter of John George Massy-Beresford and the Honourable Alice Elizabeth Mulholland, the daughter of John Mulholland, the 1st Baron Dunleath of Ballywalter.

Ten days after her birth, Monica arrived at their Irish home, St. Hubert’s Geaglum, Derrylin, and so began her early life in Co. Fermanagh.

Her childhood was spent in the large, comfortable Victorian house which had been acquired by the Dean of Kilmore, her grandfather.

“Lough Erne played a vital part in the lives of Monica and her three brothers,” a spokesperson for the Ulster History Circle explained.

“She tells of going to church in a motorboat, being schooled by a governess, visiting the Brookes of Colebrook, her cousins the Crichtons of Crom, and many other families who lived overlooking Upper Lough Erne.

“Her peaceful life at St. Hubert’s was shattered with the start of World War One. Her father left to join the Ambulance Corps and her brothers joined the regiment. She saw her cousins and friends killed early in the war.”

In I9I5, she left the luxury of St. Hubert’s and her life as she knew it, and obtained a job in a soldier’s canteen in the East End of London.

In I9I6, Monica married Danish aristocrat and diplomat, Jorgen Wichfeld, the Secretary of the Danish Legation in London. She and Jorgen moved to his Engestofte Estate in Lolland, Denmark, and Monica became a Danish citizen. Three children followed – Ivan, Varinka and Viggo.

She travelled widely in Europe and socialized with such notable people as Noel Coward, Clementine Churchill and many other household names. She also developed a line of beauty products with Coco Chanel.

In I94I, Monica, Jorgen and family were living on the estate at Engestofte in occupied Denmark.

Danish Resistance

Without her husband’s knowledge, she became an active member of the underground Danish Resistance.

“During the years until January, I944, when her name was given to the Gestapo by one of her own comrades, Monica grew to lead the Lolland Resistance, and Engestofte became central to the recruitment, training, arming, planning, direction and organisation of the actions of the Resistance.

“She was involved in harbouring RAF paratroopers and through the underground movement, was able to have them returned to Britain.

“She and her group dealt with arms drops and explosives; she hid refugees and members of the Jewish community who were being sought by the Gestapo,” the spokesperson said.

In I944, she was arrested along with six other colleagues, and tried before a Nazi court. All were found guilty and sentenced to death.

In court, on hearing of the death sentence, she promptly brought out her powder and lipstick, and coolly attended to her appearance. “Will that be all, gentlemen?,” she said.

Her companions were shot, but owing to the intervention of the Queen of Denmark, who was a family friend, she was reprieved and her sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

Whilst in prison, she showed great courage and fortitude, and was a leader amongst the women she was with.

Monica was moved from Denmark to Germany, and finally to Waldheim Prison Concentration Camp.

Her health deteriorated badly, and after having tuberculosis, she died of pneumonia on February 27, 1945 – one month before the end of the war, and 13 months after her captivity. Her body was never found.

Chris Spurr, Chairman of the Ulster History Circle, said: “Monica de Wichfeld spent her early life in Co. Fermanagh with her parents, the Massy-Beresfords; then after marriage she lived across the continent in the inter-war years of the 1920s and 1930s.

‘A heroine’

“It was in Denmark that she became a heroine of World War Two, and on Armistice Day, the Ulster History Circle is delighted to commemorate this leader of the Danish Resistance with a blue plaque.

“The Circle is particularly grateful to the Ulster-Scots Agency for their financial support, and to the Rev. Alastair Donaldson, rector of the Kinawley and Holy Trinity group of parishes, for his valued assistance.”

There is a memorial to her in her beloved Engestofte Church in Denmark.

In Derrylin her name is in the Parish Church on the Roll of Honour of those who gave their lives in World War II.