Pearl Witherington (or as she was after her marriage, Madame Cornioley) led a faction of the French Resistance during WWII, working as a spy for the British government. Given a civilian award because it was not possible then for a woman to receive a military equivalent, she returned the award saying that she had done nothing remotely 'civil' during the war.
That was later rectified, and she received others, but the one she cherished most was her parachute wings, for the jumps she'd made six decades before.
She definitely sounds like someone I would like to have met. She died on Sunday.
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