Secret Intelligence Service (SIS)

Gabrielle Petit – British Secret Intelligence Service 1914-16.

Gabrielle Petit was a Belgian national who worked for the British Secret Intelligence Service until she was betrayed and executed on April 1st 1916. An Amelanchia Canadensis tree was planted in her honour. Dedicated on 1st April 2016. 100 years on! Plaque refurbished November 6th 2025.
The Poperinge Rose from Talbot House at the Gabrielle Petit Memorial – 22nd June 2023
  • Memorial Text
  • Gabrielle Alina Eugenia Maria Petit – Age 23
  • British Secret Intelligence Service – Belgian Citizen
  • When Belgium was invaded during August 1914 Gabrielle joined the Belgium Red Cross and then helped her fiance cross the Dutch border after he was wounded and captured, but he managed to escape. On the way she noted enemy positions and passed this and other information to British Intelligence.
  • This led to her being recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service and subsequently helped many more soldiers escape whilst distributing the clandestine newspaper La Libra Belgique and helped the resistance mail service called “Mot du Soldat”.
  • In February 1916 she was betrayed, arrested by the German Military and sent to Prison St. Gilles near Brussels. She was convicted of espionage and the death sentence passed in March.
  • On 1st April 1916, Gabrielle was shot by a firing squad in Schaerbeck and her body buried in a field there. In May 1919 a state funeral was held for her and two fellow agents. They were buried with full military honours in Schaerbeck cemetery.
  • This remarkable resister gave her life for her country to help the Allied cause and free her people from enslavement and tyranny.
  • Amelanchier Canadensis Tree – Garden 3 – Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove.
  • Not forgotten 1st April 2016 – Belgium Red Cross WW1.

Further Information

Bill Franklin DFC ~ 161 Squadron RAF

Memorial will be completed in January 2026

This is the accepted design for the memorial honouring Bill , the Crew and the SIS agent on board. The memorial panel has been made of Lava Stone overlaid with a permanent glaze. Panel from the Studio of Sonia Rinaldi in France.
  • Memorial Text
  • Flying Officer William Franklin DFC – RAFVR was a very experienced Navigator with Nos. 51 & 161 Squadrons RAF.
  • This would have been his 43rd Mission.
  • After taking off from RAF Tempsford in a Halifax Mk V Bomber DG244MA-Y, the plane and seven crew members were lost without trace in the North Sea or Skagerrak 60 KM SW of Oslo, Norway.
  • The Mission was called “Vega 3” on behalf of SIS (Special Intelligence Service), with one SIS passenger and 6 containers to be dropped over Norway north of Larvik). Many of the SIS records remain secret even to this day.
  • The crew would not have known the name nor the mission of their passenger. Mystery still surrounds this SIS operation and th efate of the crew.
  • Remembering all those on board Halifax DG244MA-Y
  • F/O Herbert Wynne
  • Flt Sgt Raymond Rolfe
  • P/O William Franklin
  • Sgt James Insole
  • P/O Thomas Challoner
  • Sgt Eric Foster
  • Sgt Thomas Colwell
  • SIS Agent
  • Bill is honoured in this Grove by his nephews John Bridger and Peter Milne 2025.
Planned location to front of Old English Walnut Tree and opposite the Gabrielle Petit Memorial. Will be completed in 2026.

PAGE UPDATED 27TH OCTOBER 2025