Military Archives - Page 70 of 73

Zenobia

Zenobia was a 3rd-century Syrian queen who led a revolt against the Roman Empire.

Yaa Asantewaa

As Queen Mother of Ejisu, Yaa Asantewaa led the Asante in a war against British colonization between 1900 and 1901, known as the War of the Golden Stool or the Yaa Asantewaa War.

Teresa Magbanua was a Filipino schoolteacher and military leader at the turn of the 20th century. When the 1896 Philippine Revolution against Spain broke out, she joined the Panay-based Visayan branch of the Katipunan, the initially secret revolutionary society headed by Andrés Bonifacio.
Despite opposition from her husband, Magbanua took up arms against the Spaniards, leading troops into combat and winning several battles under the command of General Martin Delgado. She is credited as the only woman to lead troops in the Visayan area during the Revolution. Afterward, Magbanua shifted to fighting American colonial forces during the Philippine–American War.
She is one of the few Filipinos to have participated in all three resistance movements against Spain (in the Philippine Revolution), the United States (in the Philippine-American War), and Japan (in World War II). While not an active fighter during World War II, Magbanua did what she could to resist Japanese forces during their occupation of the Philippines. She sold her personal belongings to purchase food and supplies, which she would then give to the local guerrillas, and sold her property in Iloilo to help finance the fighters.

Dandara dos Palmares

Dandara was an Afro-Brazilian warrior during Brazil’s colonial period.

Milcey Zachary

Milcey Zachary volunteered as a US Navy yeomanette in mid-April 1917 and became an assistant in the Office of the Scretary of the Navy. She attended meetings of the Naval Consulting Board, which evaluated inventions proposed for military use. After World War I, she was one of the few civilians kept on staff and on 1 July 1920, took on an administrative role for the Naval Research Laboratory, responsible for the department’s elaborate filing system, and for recruiting other women.

Æthelflæd

Æthelflæd was an Anglo-Saxon warrior queen in 9th and 10th century England, who fought to protect her land from Viking invasion.

Ilse Stanley

Ilse (Intrator) Stanley was a German Jew who, working with a handful of people including Nazi Gestapo members of the Gestapo and other Jewish civilians, secured the release of 412 Jewish prisoners from Nazi concentration camps between 1936 and 1938, before the devastating events of Kristallnacht (November 9, 1938).

Yennenga

A legendary figure in West Africa, Yennenga has come to symbolise the epitome of the female warrior, a free and independent woman.

Vida Jowett

Vida Eliza Jowett OBE helped create the New Zealand’s civilian Women’s War Service Auxiliary in 1940. This led to the formation of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps, to free up men for active service overseas or for essential industries. Jowett was appointed Chief Commander of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps in 1942.
She and her family also lived in Western Samoa during the devastating influenza epidemic that killed over 20 per cent of the population. After they returned to New Zealand in 1919, Jowett became involved in the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket). She helped establish the Eastbourne sub-branch in 1922 and later became its president; becoming president of the Wellington branch in 1935 and overseeing the work of local sub-branches. She also became a member of the dominion council.
In 1940 Jowett helped organise the Women’s War Service Auxiliary, a civilian organisation with official status to liaise between women’s organisations and government departments. It recruited women to work as drivers, radio operators and signallers and in welfare and clerical sections. Some WAACs trained for coastal and anti-aircraft defence work and were part of artillery units. Of the 5,000 women who served in the WAACs during the war, 920 were sent overseas; at least 10 died while serving overseas. Jowett was known for treating problems with understanding and tact, and was known to fight with the military authorities for the welfare and future of the WAACs, even threatening to resign.
After the war ended, an official report stated: ‘It is generally acknowledged that during the war, the WAAC proved its worth. Apart from their value in replacing men, it was found that in certain tasks, women were superior to men’. The WAACs were made a permanent part of the army in 1948, and became the New Zealand Women’s Army Corps.
In recognition of her work in the WAACs, Jowett was appointed an OBE in 1944. She resigned from her full-time appointment in 1947, but retained the honorary position of commandant in the Territorials until her retirement in 1953. In 1977, the WRAC was dissolved when women were integrated into the regular army; final parades were held across New Zealand, at which a message from Jowett was read out to all servicewomen.

Lise de Baissac

Lise Marie Jeanette de Baissac MBE was an agent of the United Kingdom’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) clandestine organization in France during World War II.