French Resistance leader Solange Alexandre dies at 104

Solange Alexandre, one of France’s last surviving Resistance figures from the Second World War, has died aged 104. A rare woman to command her own unit, she helped organise opposition to German occupation, sheltered Allied airmen and took part in the fight for liberation.

She began as a courier in 1941, carrying messages and gathering information by bicycle under the code-name Corlay. In 1944 she founded the Pas-de-Boeuf network near Ruillé-sur-Loir, leading around 30 men in sabotage and other operations. She later served as a sub-lieutenant in the French Interior Forces and twice declined the Légion d’Honneur before accepting it in 2024.