Elsie and Mairi go to War

[Roxy]

I saw this in today's Express (other daily newspapers are available!). I seem to recall a recent TV programme about these brave women.

http://www.expressbookshop.co.uk/

click on the cover on the appropriate book.

From the Daily Express:

"When they met at a motorcycle club in 1912, Elsie Knocker was a thirty year-old motorcycling divorcee dressed in bottle-green Dunhill leathers, and Mairi Chisolm was a brilliant eighteen-year old mechanic, living at home borrowing tools from her brother. Little did they know, theirs was to become one of the most extraordinary stories of the First World War. In 1914, they roared off to London 'to do their bit', and within a month they were in the thick of things in Belgium driving ambulances to distant military hospitals.

Frustrated by the number of men dying of shock in the back of their vehicles, they set up their own first-aid post on the front line in the village of Pervyse, near Ypres, risking their lives working under sniper fire and heavy bombardment for months at a time. As news of their courage and expertise spread, the 'Angels of Pervyse' became celebrities, visited by journalists and photographers as well as royals and VIPs. During lulls in the fighting they would tour the United Kingdom on their motorbike with sidecar to raise money to run the post, starring in fund-raising events hosted by famous actresses of the day.

Glamorous and influential, they were having the time of their lives, and for four years, Elsie and Mairi and stayed in Pervyse until they were nearly killed by arsenic gas in the spring of 1918. But returning home and adjusting to peacetime life was to prove even more challenging than the war itself."

Roxy

[Michelle Young]

There was something on Womans Hour this morning too- I suspect an interview with the author. I didn't catch all of it I'm afraid, though Listen again should help.

Michelle

[incsoftware]

Well worth a read - not just to discover the story of two remarkable women who "did their duty" but also to get some more information about a pet subject of mine - the Munro Ambulance Service, in which an ancestor of my wife was a driver.

Ian

[Jim Clay]

An earlier thread on Elsie and Mhairi - I confess an interest - http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...=42761&st=0