My gran Ethel Gertrude Smith (née Hartill). Born in a Shropshire village in 1917 she was orphaned by the age of ten when she was adopted by a vicar and his wife. Aged 19 she moved to Stone in Staffordshire as cook/housemaid to a well-to-do solicitor Mr Pickering and his glamorous second wife, a former opera singer. She met Alfred Smith and quickly became pregnant marrying two months before my father was born in 1938. Her employers kept her on and she remained with Mrs Pickering for many years after her husband died.

When my sister and I were little she would take us up to the "big house" in the summer holidays when Mrs Pickering was away in Switzerland. She would tell us stories of life in the "big house" as it was in the war years and after. 

She died in 2008 aged 90.

07/03/2021 10:24:47

March is Women's History Month and although we are getting a bit of a late start, I'd like to hear about some remarkable women.  They can be women in your life or women in history.  I'll start.

Julia Child.  Born Julia Carolyn McWiliams on 15 August 1912, Julia graduated from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1934 with a degree in history. Too tall to enlist in the Womens Army Corps or the Navy WACS, she joined the Office of Strategic Services where she helped develop a shark repellent needed to ensure that curious sharks would not set off underwater ordnance set to explode German U-boats.  This repellent is still used today.  The rest you know.  She met and married Paul Cushing Child who taught her what she is now most famous for -- French cooking.

Your grandmother sounds like a lovely lady, Mark.  Thank you for sharing her with us. 

I hesitated to tell her story as both of them would have been horrified if I gave out their "secret". The sad thing is that we never knew the date of their marriage until after they'd both died, so they were never able to have any anniversaries shared with the family, not even their 50th in 1988. 

I would like to mention a group of women, a quite extraordinary group of the most courageous people of WW2 and that's the women of the S.O.E. Britain's Special Operations Executive. To begin with women were not allowed to be agents but that changed in 1942 when they got the go ahead from Churchill, as they were considered to be less conspicuous than men. In all 39 would serve in this terrifying world of estionage, with three getting the highest award for civilian bravery, the George Cross, which is the civilian VC. Why they were classed as civilians I just don't know, as they were fighting in a war, just like any other member of the armed forces. It takes a very special kind of person for this work, with the constant thought that there would be no POW camp awaiting you if you were caught, you would be relentlessly tortured for weeks and almost certain death at the end of it. Let's take Odette Hallowes as an example. She was born in France and married an Englisman. She came to the attention of the SOE following the governments request for holiday photos from France. She sent a lot and following that they approached her and she volunteered for SOE training. She was parachuted into France to work with Peter Churchill, head of SOE in Cannes. Their work was vital to the war effort and she was an invaluable asset right until they were both betrayed by the very people they were there to help and taken into custody. They tortured Chuchill for two days but when he convinced them he was related to Winston, they stopped but Odette, acting as his wife, was tortured for weeks. They burned her with hot irons and pulled her toenails out and this unbelievable lady told them nothing, she just stuck to her story. She was condemned to death and taken to Ravensbruk concentration camp but she survived for two years, the vast majority of it in a solitary cell, mostly in the dark, on her own. As the Ruskies approached the camp, the commandant Fritz Suhren took her and drove into the US lines, hoping that the fact she was related to Churchill would save him, it didn't, they hung the bastard. She received the George Cross for her remarkable courage and dedicated it to all those people who had served the cause of the freedom of France. She died in 1995 in Surrey aged 82.

Women's roles in history have always been underrepresented by historians. One of the reasons is coverture based in English common law. Coverture consisted of a set of marriage & property laws that force women to surrender their legal identity to their husbands. Under coverture, a married couple functioned as a unit, with the wife legally "covered" by her husband, who controlled all of the family assets. As a feme covert, she could not sign contracts, file lawsuits, keep or control her earnings or independently own any property. Along with being barred from acquiring property during her marriage, she lost any right to property that was hers before the marriage. 

THE JAMESTOWN BRIDES  In 1621, the financially strapped Virginia Company devised a plan to refill its coffers & stabilize its struggling Jamestown Colony. Most of the Colonists were single men, and without wives or a true home, many viewed themselves as adventurers, who planned to stay in Virginia only long enough to realize some short-term profits before returning to the Old World. 

Hoping to tie them permanently to the land by turning them into family men, the Company transported 56 women as potential brides. This was not altruism: Each man would pay a hefty price for his bride of 150 pounds of high-quality tobacco. 

Who were these brides? Women had limited options under the restrictions English society imposed on them. Women were expected to marry, & those who did not faced grim prospect as "masterless people" by being forced to work as servants or jailed in institutions called "brideswells." Many of the women came from the "middling" class & were promised they would find successful husbands in a thriving, healthy, welcoming Colony. Of course the truth was far less rosy with Jamestown having a horrific mortality rate, rampant illness, frequent periods of hunger & attacks by savage Indians. 

As Shula points out in the launch post, these Jamestown Brides have to be considered as "remarkable."

I had not heard of Odette Hollowes until your post, Major.  She was truly a remarkable woman and I seriously doubt that one of her stature could be found today.  Thank you and thank you again.

I also had not heard about the Jamestown Brides of 1621.  They were probably mentioned somewhere along the line in history class but in a much different light.  They were indeed remarkable and remarkably brave. 

Women's roles in history have always be underrepresented until perhaps now (I am staying in the perhaps mode for now). Both in Europe & early America they used their influence behind the scenes with the power of conversation to expand their knowledge & influence in home salons. The affluent lady of the house usually had a spacious drawing room where she had social gatherings of like ladies who were married to leaders in art, music, literature, science, philosophy, diplomacy, politics. There they engaged in conversations that were witty, observant & informative. 

This enabled them to influence the shakers & movers of the times from behind the scenes. You know, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world thingy.

This enabled them to influence the shakers & movers of the times from behind the scenes. You know, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world thingy.

Owning the world's most powerful weapon had something to do with it as well Tom.

Women's roles in history have always be underrepresented until perhaps now (I am staying in the perhaps mode for now). Both in Europe & early America they used their influence behind the scenes with the power of conversation to expand their knowledge & influence in home salons. The affluent lady of the house usually had a spacious drawing room where she had social gatherings of like ladies who were married to leaders in art, music, literature, science, philosophy, diplomacy, politics. There they engaged in conversations that were witty, observant & informative. 

This enabled them to influence the shakers & movers of the times from behind the scenes. You know, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world thingy.

I suppose you learned all this Tommy from watching the series Downton Abbey eh.

Women's roles in history have always be underrepresented until perhaps now (I am staying in the perhaps mode for now). Both in Europe & early America they used their influence behind the scenes with the power of conversation to expand their knowledge & influence in home salons. The affluent lady of the house usually had a spacious drawing room where she had social gatherings of like ladies who were married to leaders in art, music, literature, science, philosophy, diplomacy, politics. There they engaged in conversations that were witty, observant & informative. 

This enabled them to influence the shakers & movers of the times from behind the scenes. You know, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world thingy.

I suppose you learned all this Tommy from watching the series Downton Abbey eh.

Nah, some came from books & magazines, some of it I made up. 

I had not heard of Odette Hollowes until your post, Major.  She was truly a remarkable woman and I seriously doubt that one of her stature could be found today.  Thank you and thank you again.

I also had not heard about the Jamestown Brides of 1621.  They were probably mentioned somewhere along the line in history class but in a much different light.  They were indeed remarkable and remarkably brave. 

Lets just say the Jamestown Brides weren't the pick of the litter that were sent over. Mostly gold diggers looking for a man with money and a bed to sleep in. The French in Canada got first pick of brides being shipped to the new World.

I had not heard of Odette Hollowes until your post, Major.  She was truly a remarkable woman and I seriously doubt that one of her stature could be found today.  Thank you and thank you again.

I also had not heard about the Jamestown Brides of 1621.  They were probably mentioned somewhere along the line in history class but in a much different light.  They were indeed remarkable and remarkably brave. 

Lets just say the Jamestown Brides weren't the pick of the litter that were sent over. Mostly gold diggers looking for a man with money and a bed to sleep in. The French in Canada got first pick of brides being shipped to the new World.

Each woman would have had her own reason for leaving England, Pete & your reasons posted above may have been accurate for some. Records are scarce, if non-existent save a novel by Mary Johnston, To Have and to Hold which was published long after in 1899. The author imagined that after a church service the women & men would mingle in the churchyard sizing each other up while the clergyman looked on, hoping for a marriage ceremony to perform. 

I had not heard of Odette Hollowes until your post, Major.  She was truly a remarkable woman and I seriously doubt that one of her stature could be found today.  Thank you and thank you again.

I also had not heard about the Jamestown Brides of 1621.  They were probably mentioned somewhere along the line in history class but in a much different light.  They were indeed remarkable and remarkably brave. 

Lets just say the Jamestown Brides weren't the pick of the litter that were sent over. Mostly gold diggers looking for a man with money and a bed to sleep in. The French in Canada got first pick of brides being shipped to the new World.

Each woman would have had her own reason for leaving England, Pete & your reasons posted above may have been accurate for some. Records are scarce, if non-existent save a novel by Mary Johnston, To Have and to Hold which was published long after in 1899. The author imagined that after a church service the women & men would mingle in the churchyard sizing each other up while the clergyman looked on, hoping for a marriage ceremony to perform. 

Surely you don't thing these woman all came from the upper crust do you. They weren't going over to marry Lords or Dukes.

I had not heard of Odette Hollowes until your post, Major.  She was truly a remarkable woman and I seriously doubt that one of her stature could be found today.  Thank you and thank you again.

I also had not heard about the Jamestown Brides of 1621.  They were probably mentioned somewhere along the line in history class but in a much different light.  They were indeed remarkable and remarkably brave. 

Lets just say the Jamestown Brides weren't the pick of the litter that were sent over. Mostly gold diggers looking for a man with money and a bed to sleep in. The French in Canada got first pick of brides being shipped to the new World.

Each woman would have had her own reason for leaving England, Pete & your reasons posted above may have been accurate for some. Records are scarce, if non-existent save a novel by Mary Johnston, To Have and to Hold which was published long after in 1899. The author imagined that after a church service the women & men would mingle in the churchyard sizing each other up while the clergyman looked on, hoping for a marriage ceremony to perform. 

Surely you don't thing these woman all came from the upper crust do you. They weren't going over to marry Lords or Dukes.

Of course not Pete. People immigrate for a better life. You would never leave Shangra La of Bradford, there would be no reason to eh? 

Here's another great SOE agent, Violette Szabo. She was born Violette Bushell in a British hospital in France to an English father and French mother and grew up speaking both languages. This remarkable lady was working in the women's land army in the war, picking strawberries before the SOE approached her. She married a French war hero Etienne Szabo and had a daughter, who Etienne never saw as he was killed fighting at Alamein. This hurt her so deeply she wanted to fight back and so joined the SOE. They trained her in all the fine arts of clandestine warfare and parachuted her into France. She carried out great work, until she was captured following a fierce gun battle with the gestapo. They took her and two other female SOE agents in captivity, where she was brutally tortured but gave nothing away. She was sent to Ravensbrook concentration camp and there shot, with her two fellow agents Denise Block and Lillian Rolfe. They made a film of her called... Carve her name with pride. Get it if you can.

That movie is available in full on YouTube.  I watched the clip where her daughter receives the George Cross medal from King George VI.  The full movie might be too brutal for me if it shows a lot of torture scenes. 

No it doesn't Shule's, as this film was made back in the days when nothing like that entered British films. If you can get it, watch it, you won't be disappointed.

I had not heard of Odette Hollowes until your post, Major.  She was truly a remarkable woman and I seriously doubt that one of her stature could be found today.  Thank you and thank you again.

I also had not heard about the Jamestown Brides of 1621.  They were probably mentioned somewhere along the line in history class but in a much different light.  They were indeed remarkable and remarkably brave. 

Lets just say the Jamestown Brides weren't the pick of the litter that were sent over. Mostly gold diggers looking for a man with money and a bed to sleep in. The French in Canada got first pick of brides being shipped to the new World.

Each woman would have had her own reason for leaving England, Pete & your reasons posted above may have been accurate for some. Records are scarce, if non-existent save a novel by Mary Johnston, To Have and to Hold which was published long after in 1899. The author imagined that after a church service the women & men would mingle in the churchyard sizing each other up while the clergyman looked on, hoping for a marriage ceremony to perform. 

Surely you don't thing these woman all came from the upper crust do you. They weren't going over to marry Lords or Dukes.

Of course not Pete. People immigrate for a better life. You would never leave Shangra La of Bradford, there would be no reason to eh? 

As hard as life in Britain would have been in that time frame it would have been Shangra La compared coming to the Jamestown in the new world.

Many years ago I posed the question on here.... what constitutes a hard, tough person? Is it one who can dish it out or one that can take it? Is it a Rocky Marciano or is it a Violette Szabo? I have to say the latter, pressed into a choice.

Many years ago I posed the question on here.... what constitutes a hard, tough person? Is it one who can dish it out or one that can take it? Is it a Rocky Marciano or is it a Violette Szabo? I have to say the latter, pressed into a choice.

You don't have to be a prize fighter to be a hard tough person. A gun or a baseball bat will even the odds pretty fast. Had a friend in Basic training with me from Cape Breton. He was all of 5 ft 2".

I'm in the Red Hackle mess with him after duty for a beer and a few physical training instructors were making fun of his size and his kilt. All of a sudden he gets up and steps up onto his chair and on to the table. He walks along the table until he standing in front of the biggest one sitting their and kicks him square under the chin. Remember he's wearing army ankle boots.The big guy went down and out for more that just the count. There was blood all over the place and finally his friends had to take him to the hospital to get stitched up. He says to me after, I told them to stop but they won't listen. The instructor was build the same as Britney's boyfriend but his size didn't stop him from hitting the ground from a much smaller guy.

Little guys are mean & nasty because everything at their level smells different.