Erection date: 11/12/2023
For Hester Leggatt who served her nation.
Hester May Murray Leggatt, 1905 - 1995, a vital contributor to MI5's Operation Mincemeat (1943).
The Operation Mincemeat musical team would like to thank the researchers who unearthed her identity:
{list of 26 names, alphabetical by first name - see Subjects commemorated.}
A musical comedy 'Operation Mincemeat' with a plot based on the WW2 Operation Mincemeat has been performed at the Fortune Theatre since March 2023. It has won a number of awards and, January 2025, is still running. The book, music and lyrics are by the musical comedy troupe SpitLip.
Each performance includes a scene where Hester Leggatt, one of the main characters in the real-life story, and the other women in the team sing about how they will not be remembered and will not have plaques erected in their honour. The show has amassed a legion of loyal followers many of whom have researched further into Leggatt's life. So, proving the lyrics of the show wrong, this plaque celebrating Leggatt's work was erected in the foyer of the theatre.
We have categorised all of the 26 listed names as 'History' since the plaque suggests that they were all involved in the researching Hester Leggatt's background.
Site: Fortune Theatre - WC2 (4 memorials)
WC2, Russell Street
The SWET plaque is towards the left of the building. The blue plaque is over at the right, near the corner. The grand entrance with the wooden doors leads to Crown Court Church of Scotland.
The Leggatt plaque is in the foyer facing the entrance doors (and is highly reflective which makes it deucedly difficult to photograph). The Laurence Cowen plaque is also in the foyer, to the left of the entrance, between the two staircases. Below the Leggatt plaque is another, in the same lovely style as the Cowen plaque, but not a memorial, reading "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune" a quote from Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar'. We wonder if this is a reference to the difficulties and delays encountered during the theatre's construction.
Sources include: What's on Stage, Chortle, Wycombe Abbey, Wikipedia, Global Herald.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk
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