Krystyna Skarbek received the George Medal, gazetted 25 May 1945, for acts of great bravery during her clandestine wartime operations.
Alongside her OBE, Krystyna Skarbek was awarded the George Medal on 25 May 1945, as recorded in the London Gazette. The George Medal is awarded for acts of great bravery, and Skarbek's citation reflected the extraordinary personal risks she took throughout her intelligence career.
Her exploits included repeated illegal border crossings over the High Tatras between Hungary and German-occupied Poland to smuggle intelligence and support resistance networks, an arrest by the Gestapo in Hungary from which she talked her way to freedom by feigning tuberculosis, and her celebrated 1944 mission in France where she persuaded a Gestapo officer to release three condemned Allied agents hours before their scheduled execution.
The George Medal, one of the highest civilian gallantry awards in the British honors system, underscored that Skarbek's courage was recognized at the highest levels, including reportedly by Winston Churchill himself, who was said to regard her as his favorite agent. Her receipt of this medal alongside the OBE on the same day represented a rare dual honor reflecting both her sustained service and specific, verified acts of extraordinary bravery under fire and interrogation.