D Day switchboard operator from London, 92, awarded France’s highest honour for work as 17-year-old

A switchboard operator from London who worked at the communications headquarters for the D-Day landings as a 17-year-old is being awarded France’s highest honour.

Marie Scott, now 92, listened to and gathered messages for Operation Overlord at Fort Southwick in Portsmouth during WWII.

Ms Scott, from New Malden in south-west London, will be presented with France’s Legion d’honneur for her role in the invasion to liberate western Europe from the Nazis.

As part of the 75th anniversary of D-Day in June, Ms Scott will travel with the Taxi Charity to Normandy with a group of 30 Second World War veterans.

She will be officially presented with the Legion d’honneur by a French general at the Memorial Pegasus Museum in Normandy on June 5.

She said: ‘I am truly overwhelmed to receive the Legion of Honour for the part we played in the D-Day landings.

‘Very few women have received this medal and it is a true honour.

‘Being officially presented with the medal at the Pegasus Museum on June 5 surrounded by a group of World War Two veterans will be a very moving experience.’

The switchboard operator listened to and gathered messages for Operation Overlord at Fort Southwick in Portsmouth during WWII

The Taxi Charity for Military Veterans was formed in Fulham in 1948 and arranges trips for veterans from all conflicts.

A spokeswoman for the charity said: ‘Working on the switchboard in Fort Southwick, Marie would pass messages from the continent to the leaders of Operation Overlord, General Eisenhower and Field Marshall Montgomery.

‘One of her most vivid memories is that when the beaches transmitted she could hear the gunfire.’