Sophie Moss

Moss was born on 16 March 1917 in Rudnik nad Sanem.^[2][3]

Her father was a politician and a writer named Hieronim. Her grandfather was Stanisław Tarnowski, who was a professor and rector at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Moss was also a possible direct descendant of Catherine the Great^{[citation needed]} and her family held some of the highest offices in Poland.^[2]

In 1937, she married Andrew Tarnowski, a member of the senior branch of the family. Her first son died in July 1939 before the age of two.

At the outbreak of war, Tarnowska and her husband left their home to the front where Poland was fighting against the Germans. She burnt her passport as a gesture of commitment to never leaving Polish soil.^[2] Tarnowska and her companions, including her brother Stanislaw, after spending two weeks travelling Poland by car, finally resigned themselves to cross the border into Romania, reaching Bucharest as the Soviet invasion progressed from the east. As sympathy for the Nazi cause grew in Bucharest, they left for Belgrade. They traveled through the Balkans, where their second baby son died. They traveled to Mandatory Palestine, where their marriage broke down.^{[citation needed]}

Separated from her husband, Tarnowska left Palestine and travelled to Cairo, where she and her sister-in-law were welcomed by Prince Youssef Kamal ed-Dine (a visitor to Poland before the War). She began working for the International Red Cross, tracing missing Allied soldiers. General Sikorski, the Polish Prime Minister-in-Exile and Commander-in-Chief, visited Cairo in November 1941. At his request, Tarnowska set up the Cairo branch of the Polish Red Cross with the help of Lady Lampson, wife of Sir Miles Lampson, the British Ambassador, and Sir Duncan Mackenzie of the British Red Cross. She became friends with King Farouk and Queen Farida.^[2]

Tarnowska was living at the National Hotel as Erwin Rommel's troops advanced into Egypt in June 1942 after the fall of Tobruk. Cairo was evacuated, and many of her contemporaries left for Palestine, but she refused to leave and carried on working for the Polish Red Cross until she was ordered to leave for Palestine by the Polish Legation.^{[citation needed]} She refused and instead set off for the front in Alexandria, to be near the troops of the First Battle of El Alamein. There she stayed in a hotel as the only guest, all others having fled. As Rommel's advance was halted, Tarnowska returned to Cairo in July 1942 to welcome the returning evacuees.^{[citation needed]}

In 1943, Tarnowska moved into a villa on Gezira Island rented by W. Stanley Moss,^[4] with a group of British SOE officers including:

• W. Stanley Moss^[5][6]
• Xan Fielding
• Arnold Breene
• Patrick Leigh Fermor
• Billy McLean
• David Smiley^[5]
• Rowland Winn^[7]

The villa was dubbed "Tara" by its occupants – after Hill of Tara, mythical home of the High Kings of Ireland.^[7] It became a centre for entertaining diplomats, officers, writers, lecturers, war correspondents, and local party-goers, hosted by Tarnowska, in the guise of "Princess Dneiper-Petrovsk" with:

• McLean as "Sir Eustace Rapier"
• Smiley as "the Marquis of Whipstock"
• Winn as "the Hon. Rupert Sabretache"
• Fielding as "Lord Hughe Devildrive"
• Breene as "Lord Pintpot"
• Leigh Fermor as "Lord Rakehell"
• Moss as "Mr Jack Jargon"^[7]

Tarnowska used experience liqueur-making on her father's estates to produce the party drinks.^[7] By the winter of 1944, the owner of the damaged property secured the eviction of the occupants, who moved into a flat.^[7]