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Trooper Mary Ralphson, born in 1698, fought alongside her husband at Dettingen (1743) and Culloden (1746). At the same time, at sea, Ann Mills was recorded as serving on His Majesty’s Frigate HMS Maidstone, and a swashbuckling print of the era depicts her with a sword in one hand and a Frenchman’s head in the other. The print underlines the fact that female participation in the grizzly task of decapitating passing Frenchmen met with popular approval, just as the ballad of a century earlier smiled on the service of Private Clarke.
'Mary bore the great stigma (of the day) of being illegitimate ...'
Another seafarer was Marine James Grey (actually Hannah Snell). She was born in 1723, and originally joined the army to look for a lost lover. Then she deserted and joined the Marines.
The case of Mary Anne Talbot (1778-1808) tells us why a girl might end up fighting for king and country. Mary bore the great stigma (of the day) of being illegitimate and was sold by her guardian to a Captain Bowen of the 82nd Foot. He took her with him on his campaigns, disguised as a drummer boy, and her subsequent adventures found her as a castaway, as a powder-monkey on HMS Brunswick, being held prisoner by the French, and serving as a junior officer on a merchant ship.
Another example of female combatants came to light during the Peninsular War (1808-14), when British soldiers were surprised to come across female Spanish 'guerrillas' (guerilla means ‘little war’, and this was when the word first came into use). They were fighting the hated French occupiers of their country every bit as effectively as their male counterparts. They cruelly avenged the loss of their loved ones, which made Wellington’s men glad they were fighting with the Spanish, not against them.
Published: 2005-03-01
