We historians are surrounded by stories of men & women through the ages. On International Women’s Day, I want to remember a few incredible ladies. Let’s start with Sophie Scholl.
Sophie Scholl
Sophie was a biology student at the University of Munich. On 18th February 1943 she was arrested on campus by the Gestapo for distributing anti-war leaflets. Just four days later, Sophie was sentenced to death and executed by guillotine.
I've always been drawn to Sophie's incredible bravery, perhaps because I was a young student when I studied the White Rose resistance movement. Sophie, her brother and other White Rose members knew what getting caught meant. They wanted to resist. They wanted to do something. I remain in awe of that bravery.
Lady Dorothie Feilding
Born on 6 October 1889 to Rudolph Feilding, 9th Earl of Denbigh and the Countess of Denbigh, Cecilia Mary Feilding, Dorothie was one of ten children, three boys and seven girls. She made her debut in May 1908 at the age of 18, being presented to the King and Queen.
The First World War
Like many of her siblings, Feilding felt the need to do her part when war broke out. Three of her sisters, Lady Clare, Lady Elizabeth, and Lady Victoria would serve, as well as three brothers: Major Rudolph, Viscount Feilding, Coldstream Guards, who survived the war; Lieutenant-Commander the Hon. Hugh Feilding, Royal Navy, killed in action on 31 May 1916 at the Jutland; and Captain the Hon. Henry Feilding, also Coldstream Guards, who would die on 9 October 1917 from wounds received in action in Flanders just three months after his sister had left.
In September 1914, after a short training course at Rugby Hospital, Dorothie travelled to Belgium where she began driving ambulances for the Munro Ambulance Corps, an all-volunteer unit. This corps, comprising a convoy of motor ambulances donated by the British Red Cross, transported wounded men from front line positions between Nieuport and Dixmude to the hospitals at Furnes.
In 1916, Commander Henry Crosby Halahan, Officer Commanding Royal Naval Siege Guns wrote the following letter of recommendation to Prince Alexander of Teck, head of the British Military Mission in Belgium:
I venture to submit that Lady Dorothie Feilding should in like manner be rewarded. The circumstances are peculiar in that, this being an isolated Unit, no Medical organization existed for clearing casualties other than this voluntary one and owing to indifferent means of communication etc, it was necessary for the Ambulance to be in close touch with the guns when in action. (She) was thus frequently exposed to risks which probably no other woman has undergone. She has always displayed a devotion to duty and contempt of danger which has been a source of admiration to all. I speak only of her work with the Naval Siege Guns, but your Serene Highness is also aware of her devoted services to the Belgian Army and to the French – notably to the Brigade des Marins.
This citation ultimately resulted in Feilding becoming the first woman awarded the Military Medal for bravery on 1 September 1916. She was also decorated by King Albert I of Belgium with the Order of Leopold II, Knights Cross (with palm) for service to his country's wounded. I
She wrote home regularly about the difficulties of life for women at the front, those difficulties being artillery shells, lice, vehicle maintenance problems and of course, gossip!
She served in Flanders until June 1917 when she returned home to get married. After a brief honeymoon period, Feilding was back behind the wheel of an ambulance, ferrying the wounded around London.
She died in 1935 at just 46 years old.
You can visit her grave at the family plot in Monks Kirby, Warwickshire. I certainly felt it had an immense presence about it, but perhaps you can’t fail to be drawn to Dorothie when you see the list of decorations on her tombstone.
