A Spy called The White Rabbit

Spy codenamed 'The White Rabbit' to be honoured with blue plaque

Location: Queen Court, Guildford Street, Camden, WC1N

Description: The life of a spy codenamed 'The White Rabbit' whose achievements are the stuff of fiction is to be honoured with a blue plaque.

'Forest Frederic Edward Yeo-Thomas', 62, was the first secret agent of the Second World War to receive the George Cross.

In 1920 he was captured by the Russians while fighting for the Poles and only managed to escape by strangling his guard.

On a secret mission in France during the Second World War he evaded capture by the Nazis by hiding in a hearse.

In 1944 the RAF fighter command officer was captured by the Gestapo and tortured before being held at the notorious Buchenwald concentration camp.

An English Heritage blue plaque was unveiled on Wednesday 31st March 2010 at Queen Court, Guildford Street, in Camden, London, where he lived with his wife Barbara.

After helping to bring to trial several Nazi war criminals, he returned to work - of all things - in a Paris fashion house in 1946 and in 1950 joined the Federation of British Industries as its representative in France, a position he held until his death in 1964.

His biographer said: ''His story is more extraordinary than any fiction dreamed up by a novelist or filmed by Hollywood. As the title of his biography states, he was the 'Bravest of the Brave'.