911 – 918 Æthelflæd, ruler of the Mercians

Æthelflæd was a daughter of King Alfred. Her father was King of Wessex and kept his kingdom free from the Vikings. He married his daughter to the Mercian king, Æthelred. She fought the Vikings alongside her husband and ruled Mercia when he died in 911. With her brother, Edward of Wessex, she built defences across the midlands, including at Bridgnorth, Tamworth, Stafford, Warwick, Chirbury and Runcorn. In 917 she sent an army to capture Derby. In 918, Leicester surrendered to her

without a fight. Shortly afterwards the Viking leaders of York offered her their loyalty, but she died before she could take advantage of the offer, and a few months later Edward completed the conquest of Mercia. Æthelflæd was succeeded by her daughter Ælfwynn, but in December Edward took personal control of Mercia and carried Ælfwynn off to Wessex.

1139-1148 – Empress Matilda claimed the throne of England

Matilda was the only surviving child of King Henry I and did not accept that her cousin Stephen took the throne upon her father’s death. In 1139, Matilda crossed to England to take the kingdom by force. Matilda's forces captured Stephen at the Battle of Lincoln in 1141, but the Empress's attempt to be crowned at Westminster collapsed in the face of bitter opposition from the London crowds. One of her leading men was captured in 1141, and Matilda agreed to

exchange him for Stephen. Matilda became trapped in Oxford Castle by Stephen's forces that winter, and was forced to escape across the frozen River Isis at night to avoid capture. Neither side could win that war. In 1148 her adult son took over opposition to Stephen and he became King Henry II upon Stephen’s death in 1154.

Mistress Nell Quickly

She is a fictional character, created by Shakespeare, in his history plays set at the time of King Henrys IV and V at the start of the 1400s. In her role she represents the working

woman who sees her friends and loved ones off to the King’s wars with France and waits anxiously for news. Women also followed men to wars and cooked, ran taverns and were both partners and prostitutes.

1455-1471 – Margaret of Anjou, leader of the Lancastrian forces

Margaret was married to King Henry VI, who was incapable of ruling due to a mental illness from 1453. She became the leader, and therefore commander, of the Lancastrian forces against the Duke of York and his son, King Edward IV, in the Wars of the Roses. We know, for example, that she was present, though not fighting, at the Second Battle of St Albans. The Yorkists were defeated that day and she seems to have personally ordered the execution of two Yorkist noble prisoners of war. She

also fulfilled the traditional role of queens as peacemakers and symbols of unity, for example in the 1458 Loveday that involved enemies walking together to church to symbolise peace.

1558-1603 - Queen Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I, as her older sister Mary I, was a ruling Queen in a time when war was government policy. During her long reign she was at war with Spain and there were wars in Ireland. She could not lead troops into battle, as had her father King Henry VIII, but she was their commander. This is an extract of a speech she is supposed to

have made when the Spanish Armada (fleet of ships) was threatening England in 1588:

“I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm: to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.”

1643 – The Civil Wars of Britain

So many women disguised themselves as soldiers to fight that King Charles I was concerned to ban women from dressing as men. He wrote:

‘lett no woman presume to counterfeit her sex by wearing mans apparall under payne of the severest punishment’.

This suggests that there were more than a few cases of female cross-dressing in the king’s army. One example was in July 1642, when a woman called Nan Ball was ‘taken in mans cloathes, waiting upon her beloved Lieutenant’ while in the king’s army near York. Another example was the case of a young foot soldier who spent a year with Parliament’s army at Gloucester, but was eventually discovered to be a woman when visiting a tailor and ordering a petticoat and waistcoat ‘for my sister’.

1688-1713 - Nine Years War and War of the Spanish Succession

Christian 'Kit' Cavanagh disguised herself as a male soldier to take part in the campaigns of King William III and the Duke of Marlborough.

1740-48 - War of the Austrian Succession

In August 1748, Hannah Snell took part in the capture of the French colony of Pondicherry. She also fought in the Battle of Devicotta in June 1749. Snell was wounded several times during her service, but managed to keep her sex a secret.

1813-64 - A surgeon of the Empire

Dr James Barry had a distinguished career as an army surgeon. Although Barry's entire adult life was lived as a man, Barry was born Margaret Ann Bulkley and was known as female in childhood. Barry lived as a man in both public and private life, at least in part in order to be a surgeon. Barry's birth sex was only revealed to the public and to military colleagues after death. Wherever Barry served across the British Empire, improvements were made to the conditions and diet of both the common soldier and other, under-represented groups.

1854-56 - The Lady with the Lamp in the Crimean War

By the second half of the 19th century it became harder for women to disguise themselves to fight as armies were more professional and did not form up just for battle. However, women still took part in wars. Florence Nightingale went to the Crimea with her nurses to care for the sick and wounded soldiers. Her work there set the standards for modern nursing.

Professional, trained nurses were to take part in every conflict since and their work reduced death from disease and infection for wounded soldiers.

1854-56 – Mary Seacole

When the Crimean War broke out, Mary Seacole applied to the War Office to be allowed to nurse and was refused. A skilled herbalist from Jamaica, she travelled independently and set up her own hotel close to the frontlines. There she nursed the battlefield wounded. She became extremely popular among service personnel, who raised money for her when she faced destitution after the war. In 1857 she wrote the ‘Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands’.

1899-1902 - Queen Alexandra's Imperial Nursing Service

QAIMNS was established during the Boer War, replacing the Army Nursing Service, which had been established in 1881. Women from across the British Empire served in it.

1914-1918 – World War One

The outbreak of the First World War (1914-18) provoked a debate on women's roles in the conflict. The economic strain of the war and the need to make weapons meant that women were already working on the Home Front in factories. Volunteer groups like the

Women's Legion cooked for the troops, while many other women volunteered as nurses. The need to have as many men as possible actually fighting led to the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in the spring of 1917. These women carried out army work behind the frontline. Other women once again took up the role of “keeping the home fires burning”, looking after children, managing alone and worrying about loved ones far away. When the war was over many of them took on the role of carers for mentally and physically damaged men.

1914-22 – Flora Sandes

A British woman who served as an officer of the Royal Serbian Army in World War I. She was the only British woman officially to serve as a soldier in WWI. She went to Serbia in 1914 as a St. John Ambulance volunteer. Once there she applied to join the Serbian army. The Serbs allowed women to fight. She was later promoted to the rank of Sergeant Major, and then to Captain. She was decorated with seven medals.

Jessie Chrystal Macmillan

A Scottish Liberal politician, barrister, feminist and pacifist, and the first female science graduate from the University of Edinburgh. She was one of the founders of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1915. That year she spoke for the peace-seeking women of the United Kingdom at the International Congress of Women a peace conference in The Hague. Later in the war she met President Woodrow Wilson of the USA and presented The Hague peace proposals to him.

They influenced his 1918 Fourteen Points for peace. She was a delegate at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.

1939-1945 - Second World War

The women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), Women's Royal Naval Service and the Women's Auxiliary Air Force became full military organisations, which meant its members were paid. They did military work (such as driving, ordering

supplies, operating radar early warning systems and flying transport planes) that meant men could be released for frontline fighting. By the end of the war, over 190,000 women were members of the ATS.

In December 1941 the conscription (forcing) women into war work was made legal for the first time. By mid-1943, almost 90 per cent of single women and

80 per cent of married women were employed in war work. This included work on the Home Front, either in industrial roles or as part of the Women's Land Army helping to keep Britain fed.

1945-2018

In the 1990s the separate organisations for women were disbanded and they became part of the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. They could only take up support and medical jobs. Women were allowed to be frontline forces from 2016. This was extended to every part of the British armed forces in 2018. By 2017, 10% of the UK armed forces were women.

Kate Adie (1980-2003)

Kate Adie worked as BBC reporter in war zones during these years, often reporting close to the frontline. For example, the US bombing of Tripoli in 1986, the 1991 Gulf War, the war in the former Yugoslavia and the war in Sierra Leone in 2000.