Report may 2024 - The life of Flora Sandes. "You'll make a Lovely Sergeant"

You'll make a Lovely Sergeant

This was the engaging title of the May FDLHS presentation by Janette Robinson, formerly an archivist at Wickham Market. The quoted headline refers to the only western woman to have served on the front line during WW1.  Janette’s presentation was exceptionally well prepared and delivered with great clarity, demonstrating her passion for the subject.

That subject was FLORA SANDES, a nurse who became a household name, commemorated on  postage stamps, featured in the film ‘Where the Lemon Blossoms Bloom’ and even had a pub named after her. But her claim to fame was her recruitment into the Serbian Army, and her rise through the ranks, serving in both world wars along the way.

Flora was born in 1876 in Yorkshire to an Irish family. Her father, a vicar, had left Ireland with his wife and seven children. Flora was the eighth! The family lived in Marlesford until 1893 when they moved to Thornton Heath.

Flora and her sisters were sent to finishing school in Switzerland where she became fluent in French but she wanted to do all the things her brothers did.  She became adept at fencing and, when she moved to Thornton Heath, purchased a racing car. In 1908 she obtained a Mechanical Proficiency Certificate and took part in car rallies, races and hill climbs. She even won an RAC competition but, because she was a woman, she was not awarded ‘winner’ status.

At this time secretarial work was undertaken by men. Flora was not going to sit back and let them have all the fun - she enrolled on a secretarial course determined to ‘type around the world’. She travelled from London to Egypt and then on to America, where she moved from city to city as a typist. She was tracked down by Pinkertons Detective Agency on behalf of her bereaved brother to look after his 5 year old son.

On her return to the UK she enrolled with the St John’s Ambulance Brigade and the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) specialising in war injuries. All members had to be able to ride (she was an accomplished horsewoman) and have their own horses. Eventually she became an ambulance driver.

At the outbreak of WW1 Flora approached the British Red Cross but was rebuffed through lack of practical experience. Undeterred, Flora and 7 other nurses travelled to Serbia on a 3 month contract at a Serbian Military Hospital. Conditions at the hospital were grim. Lack of equipment, medical supplies and staff meant that each nurse had 140 patients to care for. At the end of the contract, Flora and an American nurse named Eleanor Simmons returned to England and embarked on a fund raising campaign. At the end of 5 weeks, the couple had raised over £2000 which purchased 120 tonnes of medical supplies.

On their return to Serbia, Flora was assigned to Vallejo hospital where she encountered an epidemic of typhus, malnutrition, insanitary conditions and lack of doctors. She found herself carrying out amputations (without anaesthetic), contracted typhus and almost died. Yet again she wanted to be more involved and contrived to enlist for the Serbian military, for which she needed the permission of the General of the army. The circumstances of her enlistment for the frontline is, we were told, taught at Sandhurst today.

One of her first duties was to take part in a retreat over mountains to safety. Flora was involved in the combat that followed and the survivors were evacuated to Corfu. Promoted to Corporal, Flora returned to field duty. During a battle ‘to the last man’ Flora was hit by a grenade suffering 24 wounds which necessitated 19 separate surgical operations. As a result of her heroic actions on the battlefield she was awarded the Order of Karadorde’s Star (equivalent of the Victoria Cross).

But this was not the end of the story of this brave lady. Flora embarked on lecture tours, published two biographies and, not settling to civilian life,  donned her uniform and rejoined the Serbian army (at the age of 65) when Serbia again became involved in military conflict. As WW2 progressed, she was arrested by the gestapo and imprisoned but later released.

There is much more to this incredibly brave life lived to the full.  By the time she was 69 years old she returned to Suffolk, where she died at Ipswich in 1956.

And the pub - a Wetherspoon pub in Thornton Heath - named ‘The Flora Sandes’ which sadly closed in 2008.

Kelvin Hastings-Smith