Friday, 12 July 2013

Elsie and Mairi go to War

Apologies!  I have neglected this section because I have been working very hard on trying to locate poets.  That does not mean I have forgotten those Inspirational Women - far from it.

Reading a book today about male soldier poets of WW1, I read a paragraph that mentioned that women did not fight during the First World War.

If you look at the excellent Facebook Page WW1 Buffs, you will see that there were quite a few women who did in fact fight.  Women like Flora Sandes, a clergyman's daughter from Suffolk in England, and Dorothy Lawrence.  



Then there were the women who travelled to the various theatres of war in order to nurse the sick and wounded.  Women like Elsie Knocker an Mairi Chisholm who remained in Belgium for the duration of the War and whose adventures there are hair-raising.

I am currently reading "A Great Task of Happiness  The Life of Kathleen Scott" by Louisa Young (Macmillan, London, 1995).  Louisa Young is Kathleen Scott's Granddaughter and the book is enthralling.   I shall definitely include Kathleen Scott in my Inspirational Women of World War One Section.