Joan Bright Astley

Joan Bright Astley, OBE (27 September 1910 – 24 December 2008), born Penelope Joan McKerrow Bright, was a British intelligence officer and organizer during World War II. After 1939, she was directly involved in the planning and oversight stages of nearly every important action of the European Theatre of the Second World War. She worked directly for the director of paramilitary operations, Jo Holland, and later for the Chief of Staff for Defence, Hastings Ismay. She was one of the co-founders of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). She organized the Special Information Centre (SIC) for Winston Churchill during World War II. Her ability to keep secrets made her in exceptionally high demand as a personal assistant, and she was regarded by Winston Churchill to be exceptionally intelligent. She briefly dated Ian Fleming and is believed to be one of the three or four women whose attributes were used by him for the character of Miss Moneypenny. She held a high-ranking position for the British missions to the Yalta Conference, the Tehran Conference, the Second Quebec Conference, and the Potsdam Conference, among others.