Zofia Leśniowska

Who was Zofia Leśniowska?

Lt. Zofia Wanda Leśniowska, was daughter of Lt. Gen. Władysław Sikorski, she was first lieutenant of Polish Armed Forces.

Zofia Leśniowska, born on 2 March 1912, was the daughter of Lt. Gen. Władysław Sikorski and Helena Zbuczewska, whom Sikorski married in 1909. On 30 September 1936 she married engineer Lt. Stanisław Leśniowski. She was active in the Polish Red Cross, and known for her passion for horse riding.

After World War II broke out, on 7 September 1939 Lt. Gen. Sikorski ordered her to organize resistance movement. Her apartment on Górczewski's Street in Warsaw was used for a conspiracy movement. In January 1940 she was called as an emissary to France, and travelled as an underground courier, smuggling various documents. She was her father's personal secretary, coder, interpreter and advisor. She was decorated by the order of Polish Red Cross; this was her only war time distinction. In London she was a superintendent of the Women's Auxiliary Service. She was killed, together with her father and nine others, when their plane crashed into the sea 16 seconds after takeoff from Gibraltar Airport at 23:07 on 4 July 1943. Her body was never found.