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.

Mary Katherine Herbert 1903 – 1983

Mary Herbert

Mary Herbert was born 1903 in Ireland.  After the outbreak of World War 2, she went to work in the British Embassy in Warsaw, before becoming a Civilian Translator for the Air Ministry in London.  She spoke many languages including French and German. 

            In 1941, she joined the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) as a general duties and intelligence clerk.  Then in 1942, she requested to be released from the WAAF in order to join the SOE (Special Operations Executive).

            After completing her SOE training in 1942, Mary travelled to Bordeaux in France.  Here she acted as a courier for the Scientistcircuit under the codename ‘Claudine’.  It was her job to liase with the different scientist groups and transport messages.  She was also used to seek out ‘safe houses’ and find potential recruits for the SOE. 

            In 1944, ‘Claudine’ was arrested by the Gestapo in Poitiers.  She endured many months in prison under harsh conditions.  She was tortured many times but told the Germans nothing.  The whole time she managed to stick to her story, that she was a French woman from Egypt.  Her knowledge of the French language and a previous trip to Cairo meant that she was able to pull it off.  The Germans finally released her and she hid in Poitiers until the end of the war.

            Later in life, she worked as a translator and language teacher, but suffered from a deep depression and committed suicide in 1983 at the age of 79.  She was one of the few women who never received any medals, for the bravery they showed whilst working for the British resistance during WW2.

Louisa Twining 1820 – 1912

Louisa Twining

Louisa Twining was an English Philanthropist and activist for the English Poor Law.  She was born into the famous ‘Twining’s Tea’ family, and spent her early years as an artist and art historian.

            Louisa started the movement for social reform in 1853.  She then dedicated the rest of her life to working with the Poor Law.

            From 1858-59, she attended Great Ormond Street Hospital on a daily basis.  Her aim was to learn about nursing, unfortunately, she found that she was not able to perform the job.  Also during 1859, she wrote an article to The Times (London) about the poor quality of the standard of nursing in the workhouses.  An area that she was working to improve upon.

            The Workhouse Visiting Society was also established by Louisa Twining in 1858.  Reports were made of the conditions that were found within, so that changes could be made in order to improve the appalling conditions that people were forced to endure.  Being poor was not a crime, yet these people were treated worse than criminals.  Louisa’s work with the Poor Law helped to bring them better health care, as well as improvements to their dietary and sanitation needs.

In 1861, Louisa helped to establish an industrial home for workhouse girls that had been sent out to service.  The following year, she opened a home for aged and incurables.  Both homes were side by side on Great Ormond Street.  She gave comfort, shelter and most importantly, medical help to those who would otherwise have been forgotten and abandoned by the system.  She also opened St Luke’s Home for Epileptic Incurable Women, situated in her own home.

                        Louisa Twining was the Poor Law Guardian for Kensington and for Tunbridge Wells, 1884-90.  One of the first females to be elected for the role.  She was also one of the people, who helped start the Metropolitan and National Association for Nursing.  It was set up to encourage proper training for nurses, in order to improve the standards of nursing care offered to people in the workhouses and homes.

            Louisa finally retired from her life’s work in 1900, and died 1912 in Tunbridge Wells.

Eleanor Davies-Colley 1874-1934

Eleanor Davies-Colley

Eleanor Davies-Colley was amongst the first women to pursue a surgical career in the United Kingdom, in a time when it was still very much a male-dominated profession.  She was also co-founder of South London Hospital for Women and Children.

            After leaving school, she worked with the poor children in London’s East End, before beginning her medical studies in 1902.  She studied at London School of Medicine for Women, achieving an MB BS degree in 1907.  Davies-Colley graduated with her MD degree from the University of London in 1910.

            In 1911, Eleanor Davies-Colley became the first female fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.  She also started raising funds along with her colleague Maud Chadburn, to open a new South London Hospital for Woman and Children.  As well as offering improved medical care for women, it was also going to be an aid to help enhance the career prospects for female medical practitioners.  At the time, many hospitals still refused to employ women doctors.

            They raised enough money for an out-patients department in Newington Causeway which opened in 1912.  By 1916, they had a purpose built hospital on Clapham Common that was staffed entirely by women.  The hospital remained open until 1984, and retained its women-only staffing policy until the day it closed.

            In 1917, Davies-Colley became one of the founding members of the Medical Women’s Federation.  She demonstrated anatomy at the London School of Medicine, before going on to become Surgical Registrar at the Royal Free Hospital.

            Later on in life, she became a surgeon at the Marie Curie Cancer Hospital, and was Senior Obstetrician at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital.

            In 2004, one of the lecture theatres at the Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, was refurbished in her honour, as a celebration of the role of women in surgery.

Dorothy Lawrence 1896 - 1964

Dorothy Lawrence

“I’ll see what an ordinary English girl without credentials can accomplish.”

Dorothy Lawrence was an English reporter who posed as a man to become a soldier during World War 1.  She was an inspiring journalist and had already had some articles published in The Times.  At the outbreak of war, she approached some of the Fleet Street newspapers in the hope of becoming a war reporter but was turned down.

            In 1915, Dorothy travelled to France and tried to volunteer as a civilian employee of the Voluntary Aid Unit, but was rejected once again.  She then tried her luck as a Freelance War Correspondent until she was arrested by the French Police, who ordered her to leave.  Unwilling to accept defeat, she then decided to disguise herself as a man in order to get the story she wanted.

            Dorothy befriended two British Soldiers and along with her ‘Khaki accomplices’; ten men who helped to smuggle her a khaki uniform, she altered her appearance in order to look more like a man.  With false papers in her pocket, Dorothy Lawrence headed to the front lines, as Private Denis Smith of 1^st Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment.

            After ten days of liberty working in the trenches, the stress of hiding her true identity, along with the hard-working conditions was beginning to take its toll on her health.  She began to suffer from constant chills, rheumatism and soon fainting fits.  It became clear to her that she would soon require medical aid, which would lead to her secret being found out.  The men who helped her would all find themselves in danger within the army.  Dorothy decided that the only thing she could do, was to present herself to the Commanding Sergeant, who placed her under military arrest.

            Dorothy Lawrence was taken to the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) Headquarters where she was interrogated as a spy, before being declared as a prisoner of war.    They also made her sign an affidavit, so that she would risk jail if she wrote anything about her experiences on the front line.

            On the way back to London, Dorothy shared the same ferry as Emmeline Pankhurst, who invited her to speak at one of her Suffragette meetings.  She also tried to write about her experiences but was silenced by the War Office, using the 1914 Defence of the Realm Act. 

            In 1919, she published an account of her experiences entitled; ‘Sapper Dorothy Lawrence: The Only English Woman Soldier.’  It was well received in a number of countries, despite being heavily censored by the War Office.  Despite her efforts, she never managed to receive any real credibility as a journalist.

            Dorothy Lawrence spent the final thirty-nine years of her life in an asylum, before being buried in a pauper’s grave.