WW1 Women - Female heroines

Category: WW1 Women - Female heroines --- See Latest World War I news here. See also 'WWI Films', 'First World War Photos', 'Historical Reenactment', 'WW1 Archives'.

One of first Salvation Army 'doughnut girls' of the First World War
Adjutant Stella May Young, later Salvation Army Brigadier, was one of the first "doughnut girls" of the First World War (some refer to her as the very first doughnut girl) serving near the front lines in France in 1918. Those Salvation Army workers served doughnuts and coffee to infantrymen (referred to as doughboys, a term later changed to G.I.'s in the WW2). In fact, a photograph taken during the war shows a young woman near the frontlines wearing an army helmet, smiling at the camera and carrying a bowl of doughnuts. That photo was to become a postcard and an integral part of the history of WW1 as it related to the U.S. Infantrymen. That girl was Stella Young. [ lportepilot :: 2007-11-08 ]

How Two Million Women Survived Without Men after the Great War
Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men after the First World War by Virginia Nicholson. The casualty lists of World War I created a demographic crisis in Britain: nearly 2 million women of marriageable age found themselves, in the fizzing of a bullet, bereaved, bereft and suddenly at a loss for someone to love. For many of those women no other love object would present himself over the course of often long lives. By focusing on women whose ordinariness allows them to serve as historic archetypes, Nicholson explores the social phenomenon that came to be known as the "Surplus Women". [ telegraph :: 2007-09-13 :: WW1 Women - Female heroines ]

Femme Fatale: A Biography of Mata Hari by Pat Shipman
As World War I becomes a fading memory, the name Mata Hari conjures up the sinister image of a seductive spy who betrayed the allied cause. In reality Mata Hari, born Margaretha Zelle, was the first of the 20th century's female superstars. By the time she was executed by the French in 1917, she was perhaps the most famous non-royal. She was not much of a spy, and she did her espionage for France. The Germans did try to recruit her, and she took advance money from a German lover; and spent it, scamming the Germans. She liked men in uniform, and married Captain MacLeod of the Dutch colonial army. She gave him no end of grief with her spending and affairs. [ washingtontimes :: 2007-09-10 :: Intelligence and Spies ]

New book on the biography of Mata Hari to be featured on the BBC
Mata Hari was the prototype of the beautiful female who uses sexual allure to gain access to secrets. In 1917 she was arrested, tried, and executed for espionage. It was charged that the dark-eyed siren was responsible for the deaths of at least 50,000 gallant French soldiers. She had been the mistress of many senior Allied officers, even the French Minister of War. But was she guilty of espionage? And what propelled Margaretha Zelle to transform herself into Mata Hari? In a biography, "Femme Fatal; Love, Lies and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari," Pat Shipman addresses Mata Hari's guilt and motivation with new evidence. [ psu :: 2007-07-24 :: Intelligence and Spies ]

Gertrude Bell - Expression "larger than life" is too small
In an age when women were expected to stay close to husband, Gertrude Bell explored uncharted deserts and unclimbed mountains. A real-life Indiana Jones, she made archaeological discoveries in an era when the methodology involved packing a gun lest the natives not be friendly. She ran Iraq when Britain, which won World War I, cobbled together that country out of pieces of the Turkish Empire, which lost the war. The great love of her life was Maj. Charles Hotham Montagu Doughty-Wylie of the Royal Welch Fusiliers. He went off to die in ill-fated Gallipoli campaign, carrying only a walking stick into battle against Turkish gunners. [ startribune :: 2007-06-09 :: WW1 Women - Female heroines ]

World War I and the Politics of Grief
Dec of 1915: Canadian women left to tend the home fires, needed hope. It came in an article "I Am A Proud Mother This Christmas" by a "Mrs. E.A. Hughes" - A widow who had just received a telegram informing her of the death of her only remaining son, Pte. Danny Hughes. She describes her sadness, followed by realization: "I am a proud mother this Christmas. For I gave Canada and the Empire a Christmas present. I gave them my chiefest possession ... I sacrificed the life of my boy." That historical nugget is just one among many in "Mothers of Heroes, Mothers of Martyrs: World War I and the Politics of Grief" by by Suzanne Evans. [ ottawacitizen :: 2007-06-04 :: WW1 Women - Female heroines ]

Angel of the Battle of Passchendale - Nellie Spindler
She was one of a handful of brave women to experience the hell of World War I's bloodiest battlefield. Based deep inside the danger zone, nurse Nellie Spindler saw her field hospital flooded with Allied troops injured from day one of the Battle of Passchendale. The Leeds Infirmary sister was part of the small band of Queen Alexander Imperial Military Nurses sent close to the Western Front. Casualty Clearing Stations (CCS) were situated a safe distance away. But Nellie, treating abdominal wounds, needed to be closer to the action to prevent infection. But after just 3 week she would also join the massive list of fallen heroes. [ leedstoday :: 2007-05-22 :: WW1 Women - Female heroines ]

The heroine who humbled me by Gordon Brown
A book by Gordon Brown salutes the women who've inspired him. Here, in an exclusive extract, he tells the story of Edith Cavell, the British nurse who faced a German firing squad for saving hundreds of World War 1 soldiers. Early in the morning of Oct 12, 1915, nurse Edith Cavell was driven to the Tir Nationale execution site in occupied Belgium, where a firing squad awaited her. She faced death as she had faced life: "I have seen death so often that it is not strange or fearful to me." [ thisislondon :: 2007-04-26 :: WW1 Women - Female heroines ]

Last Known Yeoman (F) Laid To Rest
Charlotte Louise Berry Winters, the last known Navy Yeoman (F) and female veteran of World War 1, was laid to rest in Frederick, Md. Winters died at 109. Her funeral was attended by an honor guard, pall bearers, and firing party from the Navy Ceremonial Guard. She was a founding member of the National Yeoman (F) veterans' organization, and served as its 8th commander from 1940-1941. A Civil War enthusiast, she toured the country to visit famous battle sites; visiting every state except Hawaii. 11,000 Yeoman (F)s, 1,713 female nurses, and 269 women Marines (Marinettes) served in World War I. [ navy :: 2007-03-31 :: WW1 Women - Female heroines ]

Charlotte Winters, 109, a Navy Enlistee in World War I, Dies
Charlotte Winters, the last surviving woman to have served in the American armed forces in WW1 and one of the first to enlist in the Navy, died at 109. She held the rank of Yeoman (F) from March 1917 to July 1919, and served her entire enlistment as a clerk at the Naval Gun Factory at the Washington Navy Yard. "She's not No. 1 on the rolls, but she was among the first women to enlist," Jennifer Marland, of the US Navy Museum, said. Winters was among 600 women who were on duty by the end of April 1917. By Dec 1918, there were 11,000 women in the Navy. The woman sailors found the term "yeomanettes" demeaning, far preferring to be called Yeoman (F)s. [ nytimes :: 2007-03-30 :: Last Living Veterans ]

20000 women seized - A little-known episode in American history
In a little-known episode in American history, 20,000 women, most of them infected with venereal diseases, were rounded up during and after World War I and confined to prisons surrounded by barbed wire and guards - without being charged. Caught of areas outside soldiers' camps, some were prostitutes, others teenage girls attracted to the glamour of soldiers going off to war, or "charity girls" who had sex in exchange for meals. "Charity Girl" by Michael Lowenthal covers the topic: "I decided I wanted to give these women the honor of imagining their situation and empathizing with it." [ iht :: 2007-01-24 :: WW1 Women - Female heroines ]

True heroines of the First World War battlefields
In the trenches, men as young as 16 prepare for the latest push over the top - that will lead to many of their deaths. And a few miles from the war zone a group of women struggle to tend to the massive number of casualties. Alongside their founder, Dr Elsie Inglis, these members of the Scottish Women's Hospitals Service are faced with a daily routine of blood and death as they strive to keep alive the young soldiers cut down by gunfire. But although their base at Royaumont Abbey was one of the most important centres for medical aid during the war, many of the stories about how these women have remained unknown. Dr Elsie Dalyell was one of the most respected and experienced doctors who worked at Royaumont during the war... [ leithhistory :: 2006-05-24 :: WW1 Women - Female heroines ]

Britain's last living female veteran of the Great War
107 years young, she still loves to dance - Woman in B.C. rest home could be Britain's last living female veteran of the Great War. A photograph beside her bed shows her in the brimmed hat and tidy uniform of the Women's Royal Air Force. With so many British men being lost in the trenches, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps was formed in 1917. Young Miss Stokes joined as soon as she could. She later transferred to the Women's Royal Air Force. "Our duty was to look after the men who were training to be pilots." Earlier this year, a woman named Alice Baker died at 107; she was described as the last living female veteran of the WW1. [ theglobeandmail :: 2006-05-11 :: Last Living Veterans ]

A rare medal won by a war heroine has sold for more than £3,000
The Military Medal was awarded to nurse Kate Carruthers for showing bravery in the face of the enemy during the First World War. Miss Carruthers was one of only a few women to receive the award for her heroic efforts in treating the wounded on the frontline. The 30-year-old nurse was stationed on the Western Front in 1917 when her field hospital came under attack. She was injured in the fighting but battled bravely through the pain barrier to continue treating the wounded. In 1917 she became one of only a few women to be awarded the prestigious Military Medal, which was created by King George V in 1916. [ coinbooks :: 2006-04-11 :: WW1 Women - Female heroines ]

Play remembers female war doctor - The Influence of Beauty
A play which tells the story of a female doctor who treated wounded soldiers on the frontline during WWI has opened in Oxford. The play is based on the diaries of Dr Dorothea Clara Maude who was a graduate of Oxford University. She served in five hospitals in France, Belgium and Serbia during the war despite the British Government telling female physicians to remain at home. "The Influence of Beauty" is being staged at the Osler-McGovern Centre. [ bbc :: 2006-02-17 :: WW1 Women - Female heroines ]

Dorothy Lawrence secretly posed as a man to become a soldier
Dorothy Lawrence was an English reporter who secretly posed as a man to become a soldier. In 1914 Dorothy was living in Paris and had a desire to be a war reporter on the front lines, but was unable to get employment because she was a woman. She persuaded two Scottish military policemen to cut her hair military style and then dyed her skin using diluted furniture polish to give it a bronzed color. With forged identity papers as Private Denis Smith of the 1st Leicestershire regiment she headed for the front lines, eventually arriving at the Somme. [ answers.com :: 2006-01-14 :: WW1 Women - Female heroines ]

Female Intelligence - Women and Espionage in the WWI
This engaging and intelligent study of women in espionage adds to our understanding of the experience of women during the First World War and of the legacy of their work, both mythic and real. Proctor carefully explores why the image of the female "spy seductress"-notably the iconic Mata Hari-has endured and uncovers the largely unknown history of this pivotal generation of women intelligence workers. Using personal accounts, letters, official documents and newspaper reports, Female Intelligence interrogates different, and apparently contradictory, constructions of gender in the competing spheres of espionage activity. [ h-net :: 2006-01-10 :: Intelligence and Spies ]

The only fictional war-time account of homefront by a woman
Montgomery agonized over the battles of the First World War. She was living in Ontario, as a Presbyterian minister's wife. In her journals she recorded the horror or suspense she felt over Flanders, Verdun, Vimy, Passchendaele, the Marne, over the sinking of the Lusitania and the Halifax Explosion. She wrote Rilla of Ingleside (1920), a novel describing the heroism involved in daily life during the four years of the war. This novel is the only fictional war-time account by a woman describing the home front in Canada. Putting the novel together with the journals--and now with the personal scrapbooks --gives a very vivid picture of Canada in war time. [ confederationcentre :: 2005-04-14 :: WW1 Women - Female heroines ]

Women make better spies - as long as they forget sex
Female spies, if not "oversexed", are more effective secret agents than men, according to an internal MI5 history. Women obtain more information when resisting the temptation to sleep with the enemy. "However, it is important to stress that I am no believer in what may be described as Mata-Hari methods -- the exotic dancer who obtained secrets by sleeping with army officers in WW1. I am convinced that more information has been obtained by women agents by keeping out of the arms of the man, than was ever obtained by sinking too willingly into them." [ guardian :: 2004-05-22 :: Intelligence and Spies ]

First World War in the News is an edited review of hand-picked World War I 1914-1918 articles.