Sophie Moss

Moss was born on 16 March 1917 in Rudnik nad Sanem. Her father was a politician and a writer named Hieronim. Her grandfather was Stanisław Tarnowski, who was a professor and rector at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Moss was also a possible direct descendant of Catherine the Great and her family held some of the highest offices in Poland. In 1937, she married Andrew Tarnowski, a member of the senior branch of the family. Her first son died in July 1939 before the age of two. == World War II==

Invasion At the outbreak of war, Tarnowska and her husband left their home to the front where Poland was fighting against the Germans. She burnt her passport as a gesture of commitment to never leaving Polish soil. with a group of British SOE officers including: • W. Stanley Moss • Xan Fielding • Arnold Breene • Patrick Leigh Fermor • Billy McLean • David Smiley It became a centre for entertaining diplomats, officers, writers, lecturers, war correspondents, and local party-goers, hosted by Tarnowska, in the guise of "Princess Dneiper-Petrovsk" with: • McLean as "Sir Eustace Rapier" • Smiley as "the Marquis of Whipstock" • Winn as "the Hon. Rupert Sabretache" • Fielding as "Lord Hughe Devildrive" • Breene as "Lord Pintpot" • Leigh Fermor as "Lord Rakehell" • Moss as "Mr Jack Jargon" Tarnowska used experience liqueur-making on her father's estates to produce the party drinks. By the winter of 1944, the owner of the damaged property secured the eviction of the occupants, who moved into a flat. ==Family==

In 1945, she married W. Stanley Moss. He had fought with the Eighth Army in the North African campaign before joining the Special Operations Executive based in Cairo. He is best known for the kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe to Egypt in April and May 1944. He became a best-selling author in the 1950s. They had three children, Christine Isabelle Mercedes, named after their mutual friend and former SOE agent Krystyna Skarbek (Christine Granville), Sebastian (who died in infancy), and Gabriella Zofia. Initially living in London, they moved to Riverstown House, County Cork in Ireland. They later returned to London, Putney, but separated in 1957. Moss died in 1965 in Kingston, Jamaica. The siblings paid their own expenses and were allowed to revisit Rudnik. After the fall of the Polish People's Republic, Tarnowska's nephew was able to buy back Rudnik, dilapidated and then gradually restored. She and her brother were later able to host several family gatherings on the estate in Poland. Later years For much of the latter part of her life, she lived in London and spent her summer months in Ireland. ==Publications==

• Schulz, Bruno, transl. by W. Stanley Moss and Zofia Tarnowska Moss. "My father joins the fire brigade". ==References==