Gertrude Bell 1868 – 1926

Gertrude Bell

Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE, was an English Writer, Traveller and Political Activist. 

            From 1899-1904, Gertrude Bell travelled extensively and conquered many mountains including La Meije and Mont Blanc.  One Alpine Peak in Bernese Oberland, Gertrudspitze, was even named after her.

            In the years 1907-13, Bell travelled extensively throughout the Middle East, during which time she met with T. E. Lawrence.  The two of them helped to establish the Hashemite dynasties in what is now Jordan and in Iraq.  During this time, Bell also took part in many archaeological digs in places like Damascus, Jerusalem and Beirut.  She also became the second foreign woman to visit Ha’il.  The first being Lady Anne Blunt.

            Gertrude Bell was also Honorary Secretary of the Woman’s Anti-Suffrage League.  Despite her own political achievements, she was very much opposed to women’s suffrage.  She felt that many women were not yet ready for making important political decisions.

            At the outbreak of World War I, Bell was denied a post in the Middle East, so she settled for volunteering for the Red Cross in France.  She was later recruited by British Intelligence to help get soldiers through the Middle Eastern Desert.  Gertrude Bell became the only woman to hold political power, working for the British Government in Cairo.   Throughout her time in the Middle East, she managed to form a close relationship with many members of its local tribes. 

            After the war, she helped to determine the boundaries of what is now modern day Iraq from the Ottoman Provinces.  She played the part of mediator between the Arab Government and British Officials. 

            Bell’s first love was archaeology, and she formed the Baghdad Archaeological Museum, later renamed Iraqi Museum, in order to preserve Iraqi history and culture.  The museum was opened shortly before her death and the right wing was named as a memorial to her memory.

            Gertrude Bell returned briefly to Britain in 1925, only to be faced with poor health and family financial problems.  She soon returned to Baghdad where she was struck down with pleurisy.  Gertrude died in 1926 from an overdose of sleeping pills, possibly accidental.  She is buried in the British cemetery in Baghdad.  Her funeral was attended by many people, including the King of Iraq, who watched the procession from his private balcony.

Monica de Wichfeld 1894 – 1945

Monica de Wichfeld

Irish Heroine of the Danish Resistance.

Monica de Wichfeld (Née Massey-Beresford) was born in England in 1894 and raised in Northern Ireland.  At the outbreak of World War I, she moved to London and found work in a Soldier’s Canteen.  It was here that she met her husband, Jorgen de Wichfeld.  They went to live in his native Denmark and had three children together.  One of Monica’s brothers was killed in action during WWI, which led to her hatred for the Germans.

            At the start of World War II, the de Wichfelds were living in Copenhagen, where Monica soon became an active part of the Danish Resistance.  She raised money for the underground press, sheltered fugitives and single-handedly carried explosives across a lake for use by the Danish Resistance.  Monica de Wichfeld also became the leader of resistance groups on islands in south-east of Denmark.

            In 1944, Monica was betrayed by a member of the resistance who had been captured by the Gestapo.  She did not break under Gestapo interrogation, who condemned her to death.  This made her the first women to be condemned to death in Denmark for centuries.  There was an uproar from the people of Denmark, leading the German authorities to finally back down and commute her sentence to life imprisonment.  

            Monica de Wichfeld was sent to Waldheim Concentration Camp, where she died of Pneumonia in 1945.

Nell Gwyn 1650 – 1687

Nell Gwyn

‘Pretty, Witty Nell.’

Eleanor ‘Nell’ Gwyn was the infamous mistress of Charles II of England.  She was the only royal mistress to ever be popular with the ‘common’ people.  The ‘rags to riches’ tale of her life, has led to her becoming something of a folk heroine.

            Nell Gwyn was born in 1650, although the actual place of her birth has been disputed, she did spend her early years living in Covent Garden.  Her mother, the equally infamous Madame Gwyn, ran a Bawdy House (Brothel) and it is possible that Nell may have been a child prostitute. 

            During the years 1663-67, Nell experimented with cross-dressing, complete with false beard, and went about under the name of William Nell.  She was also an orange seller at the King’s Theatre, London, where she stood out due to her natural wit and lack of self-consciousness.  At age 14, Nell gave up selling oranges and took to the stage.  With her good looks and lively wit, she soon became something of a star, appearing mainly in the new form of restoration comedies.

            In 1668, Nell Gwyn became one of the mistresses of King Charles II.  They had two illegitimate children, Charles 1670-1726 and James 1671-1680.  Both were given the surname Beauclerk.  Although not greedy and grasping like her rivals, King Charles still gave Nell a rather generous yearly pension, as well as many properties.  She never received any titles for herself, but her son, Charles, later became Duke of St. Albans.  James died whilst away at school in France.

            When King Charles II died in 1685, his last words, to his brother James II, were ‘Let not poor Nelly starve.’  James kept his promise by paying off all of Nell’s debts, as well as giving her a pension of 1500 pounds a year.  He had tried to pressure Nell into converting to Roman Catholicism but she strongly resisted.  After all, she was the protestant whore.

            Nell continued to live a fairly comfortable life until March 1687, when she suffered a stroke that left her paralysed down one side.  A second stroke just two months later left her confined to bed.  She died from Apoplexy in November of the same year.  Although she left behind a considerable amount of debt, she did manage to leave a small legacy to the prisoners of Newgate Prison, London.  She was buried in the church at St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

Mairi Chisholm 1896 – 1981

Mairi Chisholm

Mairi Chisholm was a Scottish Nurse and Ambulance Driver during the First World War.

            After war was declared in 1914, the eighteen-year-old Mairi and her new friend, Elsie Knocker, both went to London to become despatch riders for the Women’s Emergency Corps.  Mairi had been a keen motorcyclist from a young age and rode her own cycle from Scotland to London in order to volunteer.  The pair of them ended up in Belgium, picking up wounded soldiers mid-way from the front and transporting them to the field hospital. 

            The pair of them soon decided that it would be better to treat the wounded men directly on the front line.  They set up their own dressing station just 100 yards from the trenches.  As they were now no longer a part of the Belgium Red Cross, they had to raise their own funds in order to support their work.  The two of them spent the next three years tending the wounded soldiers directly on the front line. 

            Mairi Chisholm and Elsie Knocker soon became the most photographed women of the war.  The press wrote many articles about them and they became known as ‘The Madonnas of Pervyse.’

            In 1918, both women were badly affected after a bombing raid and gas attack on their makeshift hospital.  They soon recovered and returned to their work, however, they were later forced to abandon their post for good, just a few months before the war ended.  The pair of them returned to Britain, where they served out the rest of the war in the Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF).

            Shortly after the war, the two nurses had a major falling out.  Despite all that they had been through, the two of them were never to speak again.  Mairi Chisolm soon suffered from poor health, having been poisoned, contracting Septicaemia and suffering from a weak heart.  None of that managed to slow her down though.  After leaving the WRAF she took up auto racing and continued to lead a busy, fast-paced life.

            In her later years, Mairi returned to her native Scotland on doctor’s orders, where it was hoped she would lead a much quieter life.  Mairi Chisholm died from lung cancer in 1981.

Awards and Decorations awarded to Mairi Chisholm:-

Knight Cross of the Order of Leopold II with palm,

Military Medal,

Officer of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem,

Order of Queen Elisabeth of Belgium,

1914 Star.