“She did something useful.” Operation Mincemeat: Reviving forgotten histories

Operation Mincemeat is a phenomenal, multi-award winning musical that has taken the West End by storm. It tells the true story of the eponymous World War Two Operation led by Ewan Montagu and Charles Cholmondeley in 1943. The Operation staged the dead body of Glyndwr Michael as a fake pilot who was carrying confidential British documents in order to redirect the Nazis away from Sicily so that the allies could launch an attack. The musical is a fantastic watch: it had me hooked from the first song, and laughing and sobbing throughout. The show highlights how the operation was credited mostly to Montague and Cholmondeley, and how MI5 did not acknowledge the roles played by anyone else. This interpretation of the events of Mincemeat has been reinforced over time through books and films, such as the popular 2021 film starring Colin Firth.

Mincemeat sheds light onto the other roles played, highlighting the true stories of those involved with planning or putting the operation into action. Given that this era of history has been predominantly written by elite white men about elite white men, Mincemeat is an excellent example of history ‘from below,’ written and created by non-historians and challenging the ‘ivory tower’ mentality that has shaped wartime history thus far. Mincemeat’s gender blind casting further emphasises their inclusion of all efforts involved in the operation, no matter their gender. The musical and its fan community have had a significant impact in helping to uncover the true roles played by some of the characters in the show, helping to boost the growing popularity of forgotten and hidden histories. In this article, I will discuss Mincemeat‘s significance in rediscovering the history of Hester Leggatt, one of MI5’s secretaries.

#FindingHester project:

While other characters were far more attention-grabbing and flamboyant, Hester’s simplicity and the way that she came across as a real person, rather than just a character, immediately grabbed my attention. Her song “Dear Bill” highlights the effects of the World Wars on the relatives of those who were in the armed forces through her own experiences and emotions. I found Hester’s character deeply relatable and with the overwhelming public response to her character, it seems that many other fans of the show agreed.                                                    

Until Mincemeat opened in March 2023, Hester had largely been lost to history, with only a rough version of her character being portrayed in the media. Even with the opening of the musical, Hester’s true story was still largely unknown beyond her involvement with Mincemeat. It wasn’t until later in the year that the growing fanbase of Mincemeat decided to launch a campaign to discover the true story of Hester Leggatt.  

Before the launch of this campaign, the only information known about Hester Leggatt was her name. The campaign used resources from both the National Archives and the Imperial War Museum to help discover more about Hester. Through their research, fans found many documents that formed a narrative of Hester’s life, including addresses, photographs, birth certificates, and even Hester’s piano exam results. They discovered that Hester had been born in India in 1905, coming back to England prior to the First World War, where she attended Tormead School in Guildford, before attending Wycombe Abbey School. Following World War Two, Hester worked at the British Council before retiring to Chilton in Buckinghamshire. She never married and died at the age of 89 in 1995 at a nursing home. Fans even discovered that the only detail that they thought they originally knew, Hester’s name, was in fact wrong! Her surname, which had previously been spelt ‘Leggett’ was actually spelt with an ‘a’ instead of ‘e’, truly showing the extent to which Hester had been lost to history. The surge of information found so quickly about Hester is a credit to the power of crowdsourcing information like this, and how similar approaches could potentially be used in the future to identify other forgotten histories.

The growing narrative of Hester’s life was further expanded on the 29th of August 2023, when MI5 wrote a letter confirming her contributions to Operation Mincemeat and World War Two. While it is brilliant that MI5 were able to help validate Hester’s history, it is disappointing that it took this long for the institution to recognise her contribution to the Operation. Whilst they immediately upheld the efforts of both Ewan Montague and Charles Cholmondeley, Hester was entirely ignored. Without the determination and dedication from the fans to uncover Hester’s story, it is highly likely she would still be lost to history now, thus showing how successful ‘bottom-up’ history can be in influencing elite, traditional institutions such as MI5. 

Hester’s Role in Operation Mincemeat:

Hester’s role in Operation Mincemeat has largely been associated with a set of fake love letters that were attached to the pilot to make the ruse more believable to the Nazis. While there is very little evidence that confirms that Hester did, indeed, write these letters, they are widely believed to have been written by her. So why is Hester only now being associated with Operation Mincemeat? Well, it is unclear whether the letters were definitely penned by her. Ewan Montague, one of the key brains behind Operation Mincemeat, says in his book, The Man Who Never Was, that he “asked a girl working in one of the offices whether she could get some girl to do it. She took on the job, but never would tell us the name of the girl who produced the two magnificent letters.” Additionally, likely, Hester did not feel comfortable having her emotions so clearly shown through the letters and thus did not tell her superior officers that she was their author.

Hester’s Plaque:

In the song “Useful,” Hester and fellow MI5 secretary, Jean Leslie, discuss how they would ideally be rewarded for their efforts, while also acknowledging that they likely won’t be recognised for their work. There is a lyric in the song which states: “and she did something useful,” reflecting how both Jean and Hester truly only wanted a recognition of their efforts. Once again, Mincemeat uses emotion to powerfully convey history to the audience, reminding them of how many people, who just wanted to be recognised, are forgotten. Hester describes how she would ideally have a small plaque to acknowledge her part in the war.

Following the successful #FindingHester campaign, the producers of the musical, SpitLip, decided to commission a plaque in honour of Hester. The plaque was unveiled  at the Fortune theatre in London on the 11th of December in 2023, with both the producers, cast and fans in attendance. SpitLip said: “We were captivated by the mystery of Hester Leggatt from the moment we came across her. Try as we might though, we couldn’t unearth the details of her life. The real identity of Hester Leggatt fell, once again, into the background. That might have been the end of the story were it not for our show’s community. Where we let the facts fall back into the shadows, they rolled up their sleeves and said ‘let’s go’. They found her.”

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Operation Mincemeat has done a fantastic job at integrating both known and forgotten narratives together to create a more holistic story, while also highlighting how certain groups, such as women, are excluded from mainstream historical narratives. The success of the #FindingHester campaign shows how important it is that historians start to rediscover forgotten narratives in order to further our understanding of history as a whole. Mincemeat’s use of history ‘from below’ and the success of amateur, non-professional historians in rediscovering Hester’s past is a clear indication of the power of crowdsourcing information, and what could be done if a wider community of historians and enthusiasts work together to rediscover lost narratives. The success of the research into Hester will hopefully encourage future research into similar hidden narratives, further expanding our understanding of these historical events. The rediscovery of the wider history behind Operation Mincemeat has allowed us to better understand the Operation as a whole and the many lives which we can thank for our victory in World War Two. 

Written by Helena Hunter

Bibliography:

Pictures:

Wycombe Abbey Archives

https://www.operationmincemeat.com/cast-we

https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/plaque-celebrating-real-life-operation-mincemeat-character-unveiled

Sources:

“Operation Mincemeat to Unveil Plaque for Hester Leggatt Following Search for Character’s History.” 2023. https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/operation-mincemeat-to-unveil-plaque-for-hester-leggatt-following-search-for-characters-history_1552124/. 

“Fan Campaign Confirms Lost Operation Mincemeat Character Details.” August 30, 2023. https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/fan-campaign-confirms-lost-operation-mincemeat-character-details_1521133/. 

“From the Archives: Hester Leggatt (C37, Barry, 1924) – Wycombe Abbey.” Wycombe Abbey. 2024. https://www.wycombeabbey.com/from-the-archives-hester-leggatt-c37-barry-1924/. 

Thomas, Angela. 2023. “Plaque to be unveiled honouring Operation Mincemeats’s Hester | Musical theatre review.” https://musicaltheatrereview.com/plaque-to-be-unveiled-honouring-operation-mincemeats-hester/.