Chapter 58: Flora Sandes
Surrey in 1893 was home to adrenaline lover Flora Sandes. She rode, shot, drank, smoked and quickly learned to drive a car, keen to experience the world however she could, completely obliterating any obstacles that stood in her way.
As soon as she was able to, she left the dark countryside for the bright lights of London, joining the growing First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. There she improved her horsemanship and learnt first aid, before leaving to join a similar organisation, The Women's Sick and Wounded Convoy, who were to provide Flora with the adventure she had always craved.
With her new unit, she left Britain to travel to Serbia, where she became fluent in Serbian after merely a year of nursing wounded soldiers. Then, she was transferred to the Serbian Red Cross, working with a Serbian infantry regiment on the front line.
Fighting was fierce, and the Serbians were forced to retreat, but Flora was not to be deterred. She enrolled in the Serbian Army, no longer to care for the sick and wounded, instead as a strong soldier. Rapidly rising through the ranks, it wasn't long before she became Sergeant-Major.
However, in one severely hard battle, she was badly wounded by a grenade whilst fighting alongside her men in Macedonia. Flora was dragged back to safety under fire by one of her lieutenants, but suffered extensive shrapnel wounds to her body and her right arm was broken.
Did Flora let this stop her? Was this the end of her army career? No, she carried on and was soon back inside the trenches where she most wanted to be. She loved being in the army, and never wanted to give it up. It wasn't only the battles that she survived, it was also illness, even when it took the lives of so many others.
Although Flora was demobilised in 1922 (now at the rank of Captain), she found it incredibly difficult to adjust to civilian life back in England, and instead returned to Serbia, later moving to the new kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Despite being now 65 years old and in poorer health than when she was younger, when Yugoslavia was invaded by Nazi Germany, Flora enlisted to fight. But misfortune struck, and the Germans defeated the Yugoslav army, occupying the country, while Flora was briefly imprisoned by the Gestapo.
After the war, she continued to travel all over the world, before finally returning to Suffolk, her childhood home, where, after a brief illness, she peacefully passed away; her last thoughts of all the joy and happiness her adventurous life had given her.
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