Sunday, 12 January 2014
She fought on the Somme disguised as a Tommy, so why did Dorothy die unloved and unlauded in a lunatic asylum? Incredible story of the only British woman to fight in the trenches, Daily Mail
By SARAH OLIVER
|
Perfect cover: Dorothy in her military uniform
In Paris, in the high summer of 1915, Dorothy Lawrence – a young Englishwoman with more by way of courage and ambition than wealth or connections – turned herself into a Tommy.
She flattened her hourglass curves with a home-made corset stuffed with cotton-wool, hacked off her long, brown hair and darkened her complexion with Condy’s Fluid, a disinfectant made from potassium permanganate. She even razored the pale skin of her cheeks in the hope of giving herself a shaving rash.
In a borrowed military uniform she disguised the last vestiges of her female shape and found two British soldiers to teach her to walk like a man. She completed her transformation by forging her own bona fides and travel permits for war-ravaged France and caught a train to Amiens.
And then Dorothy Lawrence, a cub reporter who hungered to be a war correspondent, cycled to Albert, the village known as the front of the Front, and joined the ranks of 179 Tunnelling Company, 51st Division, Royal Engineers, as they dug beneath no-man’s-land and across to German lines.
They kept her presence a secret. ‘You don’t know what danger you are in,’ Sapper Tommy Dunn warned her, meaning from the battle-hardened, woman-starved men of her own side, not the enemy mortars.
What he could not have known was the terrible secret which had driven Dorothy to take such risks. Ten years later she would reveal she had been raped as a child by the ‘highly respected’ church guardian who had raised her after she was orphaned.
For almost two weeks in August 1915, Dorothy toiled in the sniper-infested trenches of the Somme – which a year later were to erupt in the bloody hell immortalised by the Sebastian Faulks novel Birdsong – until, weakened by contaminated water and exhaustion, she revealed herself to be a female civilian to her ‘superiors’.
She knew she had the scoop of her life, a story which would set Fleet Street alight.
Even when the British military locked her in a convent to keep her quiet in the final days before the Battle of Loos the following month, she was confident it would make her name.
Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the Suffragettes, agreed. After a chance encounter on the ferry home, she invited Dorothy to lecture the growing ranks of women desperate to contribute to Britain’s war effort. But Dorothy was banned by the War Office from telling her inspirational story either through newspaper articles or talks until after the Armistice in 1918.
Dorothy braved dreadful conditions on the Front, joining British soldiers in trenches near Albert in 1916
By the time her book, Sapper Dorothy Lawrence, The Only English Woman Soldier, appeared in 1919 it was well received in England, America and Australia, but remaindered within a year as a world exhausted by war looked ahead to the glamour of the Roaring Twenties.
It left Dorothy with neither reputation nor income, and by 1925 she was living in rented rooms in Islington, North London, her behaviour increasingly erratic. With no family to look after her, she was taken into care, and committed first to the London County Mental Hospital and then Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum.
It was here she revealed the tragedy of her broken childhood to doctors – but there is no evidence her allegations were taken seriously and investigated as they would be today.
Dorothy was in hospital for a shocking 39 years until her lonely death in the asylum in 1964
It is even possible she was declared insane because she dared to air them publicly. A century ago the word of a man of the Church would have been believed over that of a woman capable of something The Spectator described in its September 1919 review of her book as a ‘girlish freak’.
Dorothy was in hospital for a shocking 39 years until her lonely death in the asylum in 1964. She was buried in a pauper’s grave in New Southgate Cemetery, where the site of her plot is no longer clear.
It was a tragic end to what could have been a brilliant life in the vanguard of women’s journalism. Today, however, as Britain prepares to mark the centenary of the First World War, her exploits are finally being applauded.
Military historian Simon Jones stumbled across a copy of her long-forgotten book while working at the Royal Engineers Museum in Chatham, Kent, ten years ago and is now writing her biography.
With his help, The Mail on Sunday has pieced together fragments of Dorothy’s personal and professional life – and can reveal for the first time that her rape allegations were sufficiently compelling to be included in her medical records, held in the London Metropolitan Archives.
‘At the time she was committed her account of the rape was seen as manic behaviour, delusional, but if it was true it might go some way to explaining why she did what she did,’ Simon says.
‘We know today that victims of sexual abuse do not value their own wellbeing – did Dorothy deliberately put herself in danger? If she understood the danger she was in, she did not seem to fear it. Albert in those days was somewhere soldiers tried to avoid – they would even deliberately injure themselves – yet she headed straight for it.’
Simon has, however, been frustrated by the mysteries of Dorothy’s early and later life.
Her adventures in 1915 are clearly told – although he believes they benefit from a bit of spin – but her early years remain an enigma and, as a mental patient, little is known about her from 1925 onwards.
Dorothy resolved to cover the fighting on the Western Front but was ridiculed by editors unable to secure access for seasoned foreign correspondents
He believes she was born in Hendon, North London, at the end of the 1880s to an unmarried mother who used several aliases.
When her mother died, Dorothy – then aged around 13 or 14 – was handed into the care of a churchman. Dorothy describes him as ‘highly respected’ and says she was raised in ‘one of England’s cathedral cities’. Simon has traced this to South-West England.
By the outbreak of war she was scratching a living as a journalist in London.
She resolved to cover the fighting on the Western Front but was ridiculed by editors unable to secure access for seasoned foreign correspondents.
‘I’ll see what an ordinary English girl can accomplish,’ she wrote.
‘I’ll see whether I can go one better than these big men with their cars, credentials and money . . . I’ll be hanged if I don’t try.’
And so she did, befriending the soldiers in Paris – her ‘khaki accomplices’, as she nicknames them – who would enable her to pass herself off as a Tommy.
After ten days on the front line Dorothy began to suffer fainting fits. She feared that if she were found unconscious her sex would immediately be revealed
Rebecca Nash, curator of the Royal Engineers Museum explains: ‘The sappers’ uniform would have given Dorothy some leeway to move around – tunnellers had a kind of right to roam. They were not subject to the same military strictures as infantry soldiers, for example, and would often turn up without the commanding officer of an infantry regiment having been informed. It was the perfect cover.’
What was also perfect was meeting Sapper Tommy Dunn on the road to Albert. Beguiled by Dorothy’s mad bravery, he resolved to protect her, hiding her in an abandoned cottage until 179 Company troop moved up and she was able to camouflage herself among his comrades. What happened next is open to academic debate. Simon Jones is Britain’s foremost expert on the Somme tunnels, and he is not convinced by Dorothy’s account. He reveals: ‘I am sceptical of the passages in the book in which Dorothy talks of tunnelling under the front line, but there is no doubt whatsoever that she was in the trenches and that she was disguised as a man.’
His conviction is backed by Rebecca Nash. It is further corroborated by letters in the Imperial War Museum archive from Sir Walter Kirke, of the British Expeditionary Force’s secret service, which speak of a young female journalist disguised as a man on the front line.
After ten days Dorothy began to suffer fainting fits. She feared that if she were found unconscious her sex would immediately be revealed, compromising Sapper Dunn and others harbouring her.
She gave herself up, only to have a fit of the giggles while being interrogated by the colonel: ‘I really could not help it,’ she wrote.
Dorothy, who hungered to be a war correspondent, cycled to Albert, the village known as the front of the Front, and joined the ranks of 179 Tunnelling Company, 51st Division, Royal Engineers
‘So utterly ludicrous appeared this betrousered little female, marshalled solemnly by three soldiers and deposited before 20 embarrassed men.’
She was sent down the line to Third Army headquarters and subject to a quasi court martial by three generals, who had her locked in a local convent until she could be put on a ferry back across the Channel.
Correspondence held by the Harry Ransom Centre in the University of Texas in Austin includes a letter from Dorothy saying she had had to scrap her first book on the instructions of the War Office, which seems to have invoked the 1914 Defence of the Realm Act to silence her. The letter is on the headed notepaper of The Wide World Magazine, a London-based illustrated monthly where Dorothy appears to have worked.
But even with this journalistic break Dorothy was unable to parlay her experiences and talent into a successful career.
Nor is there any record of her marrying, so when her mental health failed she was incarcerated without argument for the rest of her life.
It’s only now, as Britain commemorates the centenary of the Great War, that her unique part in it is being officially recognised with a mention in the new gallery at the Imperial War Museum, which will open this summer.
Curator Laura Clouting said: ‘This was a time when there was no provision for women to join any branch of the Services and they weren’t even able to work in munitions factories. Mostly they were involved in charity fundraising or succumbed to knitting mania.
‘We’re including Dorothy Lawrence because she proved the exception to the rule.’
So although she left little trace – no family papers or albums of photographs, and of course, no descendants to celebrate her achievement – 100 years after Dorothy Lawrence became a Sapper on the Somme, her place in history is finally secured.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2537793/She-fought-Somme-disguised-Tommy-did-Dorothy-die-unloved-unlauded-lunatic-asylum-Incredible-story-British-woman-fight-trenches.html#ixzz2qCSFVR6n
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Words for The Wise, Hebrews 2 New American Standard Bible (NASB) Give Heed to Salvation
2 For
this reason we must pay much closer attention to [a]what
we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. 2 For
if the word spoken through angels proved[b]unalterable,
and every transgression and disobedience received a just [c]penalty,3 how
will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? [d]After
it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by
those who heard, 4 God
also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various [e]miracles
and by[f]gifts
of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.
Earth
Subject to Man
5 For He did not subject to angels [g]the
world to come, concerning which we are speaking. 6 But
one has testified somewhere, saying,
“What is man, that You remember him?
Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him?
7 “You have made him [h]for a little while lower than the angels;
You have crowned him with glory and honor,
[i]And have appointed him over the works of Your hands;
8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”
Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him?
7 “You have made him [h]for a little while lower than the angels;
You have crowned him with glory and honor,
[i]And have appointed him over the works of Your hands;
8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”
For in subjecting all things to him, He
left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things
subjected to him.
Jesus
Briefly Humbled
9 But we do see Him who was made [j]for a
little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of
the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the
grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are
all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect
the [k]author
of their salvation through sufferings. 11 For both
He who sanctifies and those who are [l]sanctified
are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call
them brethren
, 12 saying,
“I will proclaim Your name to My brethren,
In the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.”
In the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.”
13 And again,
“I will put My trust in Him.”
And again,
“Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me.”
14 Therefore, since the children share in [m]flesh
and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through
death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is,
the devil, 15 and might free those who through fear
of death were subject to slavery all their lives. 16 For
assuredly He does not [n]give
help to angels, but He gives help to the [o]descendant
of Abraham. 17 Therefore, He [p]had to
be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make
propitiation for the sins of the people.18 For since He
Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to
the aid of those who are tempted.
Footnotes:
a.
Hebrews 2:1 Lit the
things that have been heard
b.
Hebrews 2:2 Or steadfast
c.
Hebrews 2:2 Or recompense
d.
Hebrews 2:3 Lit Which
was
e.
Hebrews 2:4 Or works
of power
f.
Hebrews 2:4 Lit distributions
g.
Hebrews 2:5 Lit the
inhabited earth
h.
Hebrews 2:7 Or ...him
a little lower than...
i.
Hebrews 2:7 Two
early mss do not contain And...hands
j.
Hebrews 2:9 Or a
little lower
k.
Hebrews 2:10 Or leader
l.
Hebrews 2:11 Or being
sanctified
m. Hebrews 2:14 Lit blood
and flesh
n.
Hebrews 2:16 Lit take
hold of angels, but He takes hold of
o.
Hebrews 2:16 Lit seed
p.
Hebrews 2:17 Lit was
obligated to be
1 Matthew
Henry's Commentary
Verses 1-4
The apostle proceeds in the plain profitable method of doctrine,
reason, and use, through this epistle. Here we have the application of the
truths before asserted and proved; this is brought in by the illative particle therefore, with which this
chapter begins, and which shows its connection with the former, where the
apostle having proved Christ to be superior to the angels by whose ministry the
law was given, and therefore that the gospel dispensation must be more
excellent than the legal, he now comes to apply this doctrine both by way of
exhortation and argument.
I. By way of exhortation: Therefore we ought to give the more
diligent heed to the things which we have heard, Heb. 2:1. This is the first
way by which we are to show our esteem of Christ and of the gospel. It is the
great concern of every one under the gospel to give the most earnest heed to
all gospel discoveries and directions, to prize them highly in his judgment as
matters of the greatest importance, to hearken to them diligently in all the
opportunities he has for that purpose, to read them frequently, to meditate on
them closely, and to mix faith with them. We must embrace them in our hearts
and affections, retain them in our memories, and finally regulate our words and
actions according to them.
II. By way of argument, he adds strong motives to enforce the
exhortation.
1.
From the great loss we shall sustain if we do not take this
earnest heed to the things which we have heard: We shall let them slip. They
will leak, and run out of our heads, lips, and lives, and we shall be great
losers by our neglect. Learn, (1.) When we have received gospel truths into our
minds, we are in danger of letting them slip. Our minds and memories are like a
leaky vessel, they do not without much care retain what is poured into them;
this proceeds from the corruption of our natures, the enmity and subtlety of
Satan (he steals away the word), from the entanglements and snares of the
world, the thorns that choke the good seed. (2.) Those meet with an
inconceivable loss who let gospel truths, which they had received, slip out of
their minds; they have lost a treasure far better than thousands of gold and
silver; the seed is lost, their time and pains in hearing lost, and their hopes
of a good harvest lost; all is lost, if the gospel be lost. (3.) This
consideration should be a strong motive both to our attention to the gospel and
our retention of it; and indeed, if we do not well attend, we shall not long
retain the word of God; inattentive hearers will soon be forgetful hearers.
2.
Dictionary of Bible Themes
1444
revelation, in NT
The NT fulfils and completes the
revelation of God which began in the OT. Jesus Christ is the central focus of
this self-revelation of God.
The
unity and progress of revelation
The unity of OT and NT Mt 5:17-18 See also Ro 3:21-22; 2Ti 3:14-15; 2Pe 3:15-16 The writings of Paul are
presented as having equal status with the OT Scriptures; Rev 22:18-19 These sanctions have the
same force as those of Dt 4:2; 12:32.
The progress of NT revelation Heb 1:1-2 See alsoHeb 2:1-4; Heb 12:22-27
The
NT fulfils and completes God’s revelation of himself
Jesus Christ is the supreme revelation
of God Col 1:25-27 See also Jn 1:9-18; Jn 14:6; Ac 4:12; Gal 4:4; Php 2:6-8; Heb 2:14
Jesus Christ has the nature of God Php 2:6
Jesus Christ is the exact
representation of GodHeb 1:3
Jesus Christ is the incarnate Word of
God Jn 1:14
The
role of the Holy Spirit in revelation
He is the divine agent of revelation Jn 16:12-15 See also Jn 14:16-17; Jn 15:26; 1Jn 4:6; 1Jn 5:6; Rev 2:7,11,17,29; Rev 3:6,13,22
He is the source of revelatory
manifestations 1Co 12:7-11 See also Ac 2:1-12; Ro 12:6; 1Co 12:28-30;1Co 13:8-12; 1Co 14:1-33; Eph 4:11
God’s
purposes in revelation
To reveal himself in Jesus Christ Col 1:15-20 See also Jn 1:14; Jn 12:44-45; Jn 14:9; 2Co 4:4; Heb 1:3
To reveal his plan through Jesus Christ Eph 1:9-10See also Ro 16:25-27; 1Co 2:7-10; Eph 3:3-11; Col 1:19-20
Fanny J Crosby’s Great Hymn
Redeemed, how I love to
proclaim it!
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed through His infinite mercy,
His child and forever I am.
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed through His infinite mercy,
His child and forever I am.
Refrain
Redeemed, redeemed,
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed, redeemed,
His child and forever I am.
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed, redeemed,
His child and forever I am.
Redeemed, and so happy in
Jesus,
No language my rapture can tell;
I know that the light of His presence
With me doth continually dwell.
No language my rapture can tell;
I know that the light of His presence
With me doth continually dwell.
Refrain
I think of my blessèd
Redeemer,
I think of Him all the day long:
I sing, for I cannot be silent;
His love is the theme of my song.
I think of Him all the day long:
I sing, for I cannot be silent;
His love is the theme of my song.
Refrain
I know there’s a crown
that is waiting,
In yonder bright mansion for me,
And soon, with the spirits made perfect,
At home with the Lord I shall be.
In yonder bright mansion for me,
And soon, with the spirits made perfect,
At home with the Lord I shall be.
Refrain
Yours by His Grace
Blair Humphreys
Southport.Merseyside
January 12th 2014
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