Hello Readers,
Quick disclaimer I do not own any rights to photos used,
the photos are being used for educational purposes.
Today we are carrying on women’s week and I have picked
three women who I personally think need a little more recognition. I have
chosen to spotlight Mary Seacole, The Red Roses (England Women's Rugby) and
Eileen Nearne
Mary Seacole
At 12 years old, Mary was already helping her mother run
a boarding house in Kingston, where many of the guests were sick or injured
soldiers. Mary’s mother taught her a lot about traditional Jamaican treatments
and remedies, and Mary was fortunate enough to learn more about medicine and
treatments from army doctors staying at the boarding house.
In 1836, Mary married Edwin Seacole in her hometown of
Kingston. But sadly, Edwin was a very sick man and died in 1844. Following her
husband’s death, Mary focussed on caring for sick people. Mary's medical skill
were put to good use in 1850 when the people of Kingston fell victim to a
deadly disease called cholera.
When Mary heard the news of British soldiers going off to
Russia to fight in the Crimean War, she wanted to help. So, Mary went to the
War Office in London to request if she could join Florence Nightingale and her
team of nurses. Mary was turned down, along with several other nurses. Guess
what she did? Mary stuck up her two fingers got her friend Thomas Day to join
her and in 1866 they set off to the Crimea in a ship stocked with medical
supplies.
When Mary eventually arrived many of the soldiers were
cold, dirty and hungry, and those that were sick and wounded weren’t being
cared for. Mary decided something had to be done and so, with her loyal friend
Thomas, she opened a “British Hotel” near to the battlefields. To be clear,
this wasn’t a ‘hotel’ it was a hut made of metal sheets, where soldiers could
rest and buy hot food, drinks and equipment. Mary used the money spent there to
help treat and care for sick and wounded soldiers.
A lot of nurses did invaluable work looking after the
soldiers in the Crimean War and no one has any right to take that away from
them. However, Mary went a step further than most, and rode on horseback into
the battlefields, while under fire, to nurse wounded men from both sides of the
war.
After the war Mary led a quiet life, spending her time
between London and Jamaica where she went to escape cold winters and Mary
received a number of medals for her bravery from governments in different
countries.
The Red Roses
The England women's national rugby union team first
played in 1982. In 1994 the Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) was formed in
England with each of the Home Nations governing their own countries. Many of
the top men’s clubs have had women’s teams including Wasps, Saracens,
Worcester, London Irish and Harlequins.
Since the 1990s, rugby for women has grown significantly
as more rugby union tournaments were being held and women’s rugby was given
more publicity and centre stage although 7s tend to be more popular.
In 2003 England staged the first women’s international at
Twickenham. While in 2006 the RFU devoted the rugby museum's main annual
exhibition to the history of women's rugby—"Women's Rugby—A Work in
Progress", and the Women's Rugby World Cup was broadcast live on the
internet.
If I am wrong please feel free to correct me but I don’t
think it was till the men’s 2015 rugby world cup being held in England that I
noticed The Red Rose getting any recognition. I noticed the Hashtags
#WatchThemGrow and #SendHerVictorious start appearing on adverts and social
media platforms. Since the 2017 Women's World Cup, the Red Roses have won
14 of their 15 Tests matches.
Red Roses in numbers
World Cup
2 wins
Six Nations Championship
14 wins
13 Grand Slam
19 Triple Crowns
European Championship
5 wins
Eileen Nearne
The young women had to travel through neutral territories
before finally reaching London in 1942. There they were offered jobs with the
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, but Eileen turned the offer down.
However luckily for Eileen, she was fluent in French,
British intelligence offered her a job with the Special Operations Executive
(SOE). Initially, Eileen stayed in Great Britain, working as a signals operator
who handled messages from undercover agents abroad.
In March 1944, Eileen finally went to France to work in
the field. The Frenchmen that Eileen met upon arrival thought she was too young
for such dangerous work, but she refused to be sent home. Eileen assumed the
aliases Mademoiselle du Tort and Jacqueline Duterte and set to work in Paris.
Her code name was simply “Rose”.
the Germans were getting better at detecting radio
transmissions, to stay ahead, Eileen regularly changed addresses. She was
nearly caught on a train when a flirtatious German soldier offered to carry her
bag—the very one which contained her transmitter.
On July 21, 1944, Eileen had just sent a message when she
heard the unmistakable wail of sirens outside. She tried to burn her notebook
and hid her equipment before the Gestapo broke in. The burning papers were
incriminating enough, but then they found her radio.
Eileen tried to reason with the Gestapo claiming she was
French and simply sending messages for a businessman. The Gestapo didn’t
believe her and she was taken to the headquarters, where she subjected to
torture. Despite that, she would not reveal any information. Eileen was then
sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany. They shaved her head,
and also threatened to shoot her when she refused to do prison work. Over the
next few months, they moved her to different camps and tortured her, but she
never changed her story.
On 13 April 1945, she escaped with two French girls from
a work gang by hiding in the forest, later travelling through Markkleeberg,
where they were arrested by the S.S. but released after fooling their captors
and reportedly hidden by a priest in Leipzig until the arrival of United States
troops.
Lx
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