Sapper Dorothy: the Only English Woman Soldier in the Royal Engineers: 51st Division, 79th Tunnelling Co. During the First World War

By Dorothy Lawrence

The adventures of an intrepid young woman on the Western Front

It would not be quite accurate to portray Dorothy Lawrence as a bona fide soldier of the British Army. Dorothy was in fact a young woman with great aspirations to embark upon a career in journalism and she knew it would be a coup to give a female perspective of the activities of men on the front line-as it were-from within their own ranks. So she devised a scheme to bring her objectives about and its success was marked by a 10 day stint in the line at Albert in 1915 with the Royal Engineers during the opening stages of the battle of Loos. Dorothy certainly saw action—the trench she occupied lay less than 400 yards from the German front line. She was eventually discovered and the entire story of how she pulled off her subterfuge, her time in the trenches and what befell her thereafter is told in this delightful account.-Print ed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Porirua Publishing
• Release date: Apr 18, 2024
• ISBN: 9781991141927

Book preview