20 Facts About Flora Sandes

Flora Sandes was a British woman who served as a member of the Royal Serbian Army in World War I She was the only British woman officially to serve as a soldier in that war.

Flora Sandes was promoted to the rank of sergeant major, and, after the war, to senior captain.

Flora Sandes was born on 22 January 1876 in Nether Poppleton, Yorkshire, the youngest daughter of an Irish family.

Flora Sandes's father was Samuel Dickson Sandes, the former rector of Whitchurch, County Cork, and her mother was Sophia Julia.

Flora Sandes enjoyed riding and shooting and said that she wished she had been born a boy.

Flora Sandes learned to drive, and drove an old French racing car.

Flora Sandes left the FANY in 1910, joining another renegade, Mabel St Clair Stobart, in the formation of the Women's Sick and Wounded Convoy Corps.

Flora Sandes nonetheless joined a St John Ambulance unit raised by American nurse Mabel Grouitch, and on 12 August 1914 left England for Serbia with a group of 36 women to try to aid the humanitarian crises there.

Flora Sandes joined the Serbian Red Cross and worked in an ambulance for the Serbian Army's 2nd Infantry Regiment.

In 1915 Flora Sandes struggled persistently to get to the front, eventually joining the ambulance of the Second Regiment at the Babuna Pass.

Flora Sandes recounted later that to formalize the change she removed her Red Cross badge and replaced it with the brass regimental figures from Colonel Milich's epaulettes.

In 1916, during the Serbian advance on Bitola, Flora Sandes was seriously wounded by a grenade in hand to hand combat.

Also in 1916, Flora Sandes published her autobiography, An English Woman-Sergeant in the Serbian Army, based on her letters and diaries.

Flora Sandes used this account to help her raise funds for the Serbian Army, and was compared with the writings for Dr Caroline Matthews 'Experiences of a Woman Doctor in Serbia'.

In May 1927, Flora Sandes married Yuri Yudenitch, a former Russian White Army general officer.

Flora Sandes lectured extensively on her wartime experiences in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, France, Canada and the United States.

Flora Sandes wore her military uniform while delivering her lectures.

Flora Sandes spent the last years of her life in Suffolk, living at Lower Hacheston near Wickham Market.

Flora Sandes died at the East Suffolk and Ipswich Hospital on 24 November 1956.

Flora Sandes was cremated at Ipswich Crematorium and her ashes scattered in the Garden of Remembrance.