Military Archives - Page 4 of 78

Mary Clare Moore

1800s Irish Sister of Mercy, foundress, Crimean war nurse, and teacher

Yvonne Rudellat

Using the cover name Jacqueline Gautier, the 45-year-old Rudellat worked as a courier, organized supply drops, and became skilled at sabotage after being deployed to France in July 1942.

Helen Gwynne-Vaughan was an acclaimed mycologist, King’s College graduate, and Head of the Botany Department (as well as first female professor) at Birkbeck College long before she joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps during World War I, and was made chief controller of the women deployed to France.

Julienne Aisner

A former teacher and scriptwriter, Julienne Aisner was running a Paris film company when the Nazis occupied France. The 43-year-old Aisner was recruited in January 1943 by an SOE officer to rent apartments for arriving SOE agents, welcome them to Paris and provide them with false documents—identity cards, ration cards, and work permits—that she obtained.

Florence Simpson

Florence Simpson came to the WAAC having worked with the Women’s Legion, an Army-sanctioned women’s volunteer unit tasked with cooking for the troops. By the end of 1915, the 41-year-old Simpson had risen to Commandant of Cooks for the Legion and was hard at work establishing business-like practices.

Frances Keegan Marquis

Prior to volunteering for the U.S. Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps at age 45 in 1942, Frances Keegan Marquis had been an active suffragist who managed the Franklin Square House, a residential hotel in Boston offering housing and social services for around 700 women students and wage earners.

Blanche Charlet

Blanche Charlet was an influential gallery owner in Brussels after World War I. Known as Agent Japonica and Ventriloquist, Charlet was recruited by the SOE in 1941 and became a courier for the French resistance during WWII.

Marie-Louise Dissard

WWII French resistance member Marie-Louise Dissard, code name Françoise or Victoire, was in her 60s when she took over the escape network known as the Pat O’Leary Line.

Marie-Thérèse Le Chêne

Marie-Thérèse Le Chêne was the oldest woman the SOE sent to France—age 52 when she was served as a courier and distributed anti-Nazi materials from November 1942 to August 1943.

Dr Mona Chalmers Watson

In July 1917, Mona Chalmers Watson was named the first Chief Controller of Britain’s Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) when it was formed. The thousands of WAACs worked as cooks and waitresses, clerks, communications operators, drivers, and more. She was already noteworthy as a suffragist, physician, and the first woman to receive her MD from the University of Edinburgh.