Born: 15 July 1880, France
Died: 27 September 1918
Country most active: France
Also known as: Alice Dubois
Louise Marie Jeanne Henriette de Bettignies was a French secret agent who spied on the Germans for the British during World War I. In 1914, she went to the volatile city of Lille under the pretext of joining her sister Germaine, whose husband, Maurice Houzet was mobilized. At the time, the city was a major battle ground between French and German forces.
From 4 to 13 October 1914, an intense battle raged, destroying more than 2,200 buildings and houses. 28-year-old Louise ensured the supply of ammunition and food to the French soldiers who were still firing on the attackers. With her ability to speak French, English, German, and Italian, Louise developed and ran a vast intelligence network from her home in northern France on behalf of the British army and the MI6 intelligence service under the alias Alice Dubois, providing vital information to the British through occupied Belgium and the Netherlands. The network is estimated to have saved the lives of more than 1,000 British soldiers during its 9 months of full operation from January to September 1915.
The “Alice” network of 100 people, mostly within forty kilometers of the front to the west and east of Lille, was so effective that Louise was nicknamed “the queen of spies” by her British superiors. She smuggled men to England, provided valuable information to the Intelligence Service, and prepared a grid map of the region around Lille. When the German army installed a new battery of artillery, this position was bombed by the Royal Flying Corps within eight days, despite being camouflaged.
One of her final messages announced the preparation of a major German attack on Verdun in early 1916. The information was relayed to the French commander who refused to believe it. The Battle of Verdun lasted almost 10 months and resulted in 379,000 to 400,000 French casualties, with 163,000 dead.
Arrested by the Germans on 20 October 1915, she was sentenced to forced labor for life on 16 March 1916. She died on 27 September 1918 as a result of pleural abscesses poorly operated upon at St. Mary’s Hospital in Cologne, mere months before the end of the war.
She was posthumously awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honor, the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 with palm, and the British Military Medal, and she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
A small museum is located in her birthplace, rue Louise Bettignies (formerly Rue de Conde) in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, since 2008. Several French towns have named streets, schools and other structures in her honour.