Flora Sandes (1876–1956) was the only British woman to officially serve as a soldier during the World War I and the first woman commissioned officer in the Serbian army. Her life was marked by a constant appetite for adventure and military service.
Adventurous beginnings
The daughter of a clergyman, Flora was the youngest of eight children. Her early years were spent moving from one parish to another. She had a happy childhood and, from an early age, was particularly active and energetic. She loved reading tales of battle and became proficient in horse riding, shooting, camping in the wild, and driving cars.
As an adult, Flora was restless and easily bored. She had no taste for domestic life. She tried various jobs and notably worked as a typist in Cairo. She was also a member of two quasi-military women’s organizations, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and the Women's Sick and Wounded Convoy Corps.
When the war broke out, Flora was camping with her family. She immediately got into her French car and drove home, determined to make herself useful in any way she could.
Nurse in Serbia
Flora applied to the Red Cross, but was rejected because her nursing qualifications were deemed insufficient. When an opportunity arose to join a group of volunteer nurses sent to Serbia, she accepted immediately.
There, Flora encountered dire conditions, including a lack of medical supplies and running water. She had to learn a new language and performed operations and amputations herself, sometimes with makeshift tools. A typhus epidemic spread, and Flora contracted the disease but survived. Through these trials, she developed a deep affection for Serbia and admiration for the resilience of its people.
Yet Flora had always wanted to become a soldier. A Serbian soldier, impressed by her riding skills, once told her that her abilities were wasted in the hospital and encouraged her to join the army.
Through sheer determination, Flora gradually moved closer to the front until she came to work with a military ambulance. There, she befriended a seventeen-year-old Serbian girl who lived and worked with the army, dressed as a soldier.
Private Flora Sandes
Flora was confident, wore her hair short, and drank and smoked as she pleased. She paid little attention to conventions. She befriended Colonel Milić, who was impressed by her temperament and riding skills. He became her protector, but never treated her with indulgence.
Flora eventually asked him if she could join the army as a private. Milić agreed, but General Vasić warned her that she would have to follow the troops on a long and grueling march through Albania.
Flora asked whether she would be a burden. He replied that, on the contrary, she would be welcomed as a symbol of British support. Thanks to her skill with a rifle and her composure under pressure, Flora quickly earned the respect of the men, even though she was the only woman among them. She became something of a mascot.
She also helped procure food and uniforms and shared her cigarettes. She was soon promoted and reached the rank of sergeant. Flora felt she had found her place in the army. In her own words, she took to soldiering like a duck to water. At first, she held a romantic vision of war and enjoyed the strong sense of camaraderie. Over time, however, her outlook became more sober.
Reports praised her bravery in combat and held her up as an example to her company.
Through sheer willpower
In 1916, during the fighting at Bitola, Flora was wounded by shrapnel in the back and was hospitalized. During her recovery, she met Milunka Savić, one of the women serving in the Serbian army, who would later become the most decorated woman of the war.
Milunka was independent and fearless. She examined Flora’s wounds and praised her endurance. Flora, in turn, noted her stoicism and the way she concealed her suffering.
Flora later returned to England to raise funds for a canteen for Serbian soldiers, with the help of suffragist Evelina Haverfield. She gave speeches, including to audiences of British soldiers, and was warmly received.
However, her true calling remained at the front. She returned once again, this time rising to the rank of sergeant-major. She endured long marches and was eventually sent to the trenches, where she took part in night raids against Bulgarian positions.
She marched on bleeding feet, pushing forward through sheer determination. She continued to distinguish herself in battle, once stopping an enemy counterattack at the head of her unit. She held her position even in conditions of severe hardship, at times surpassing the endurance of the men around her.
Commissioned officer
After the war, Flora struggled to adapt to civilian life, which now felt distant and unfamiliar. She chose to remain in the Serbian army and became its first female commissioned officer.
She adapted quickly to the demanding role of second lieutenant. In 1920, she met Yuri Yudenitch, a former officer of the Russian army who was placed under her command. Flora was eventually demobilized in 1922.
In 1927, she married Yuri in Paris. She was 51 and he was 38. The couple held various jobs before settling in Belgrade. Yet Flora remained restless. She traveled extensively, gave lectures, and wrote her memoirs. She deeply missed military life.
A last stand
When Invasion of Yugoslavia by Nazi Germany began, Flora was briefly called back to service. At 65, she put on her uniform once more and left for the front. She was glad to return to the army, even if she regretted the circumstances.
Her return was short-lived, as the invasion ended before she could make a meaningful contribution. She was briefly imprisoned. Despite living under the constant threat of execution, Flora faced the guards with a confidence that impressed the other female prisoners. She was eventually released, but her husband died soon afterward.
After the war, Flora resumed traveling and visited her nephew in Jerusalem. Even in retirement, she longed for the army: “I miss soldiering, I loved it.” She proudly attended veterans’ gatherings.
Flora eventually returned to Suffolk, where she died of illness in 1956.
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Further reading:
Miller Louise, A Fine Brother: The Life of Captain Flora Sandes
Sandes Flora, An English Woman-Sergeant in the Serbian Army`
Shipton Elizabeth, Female Tommies: The Frontline Women of the First World War
To my utter shock, when I typed her name into the search bar, there were almost no results for the remarkable Flora Sandes. So for today’s post, I’m going to aim to fix that. Prepare for one of the more unusual stories of WWI - and how unexpected turns of events can create amazing people to thrive in them.
(Flora Sandes in 1918, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Flora Sandes (1876-1956) was born the youngest daughter of an Irish family, her father a village rector. While her background may have seemed traditional enough, Flora certainly was not. As a girl her favorite activities were horseback riding and shooting - hardly considered ‘acceptable’ practices for a young woman at the time. That being the case, Flora lamented the fact that she hadn’t been born a man.
That lamentation was likely more about how her journey would have been easier - but nothing as small-minded as ‘acceptable’ was going to slow her down. Instead, she took up driving (including owning a French racing car) and joined a women’s paramilitary group, the FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) - where her martial skills were honed with first aid knowledge, military signalling and drill.
When the First Balkan War erupted, her and another woman, Mabel St. Clair Stobart, (herself a remarkably accomplished person in any age) found their way into the war zone. When the First World War broke out, Flora vaulted over rejection to find her way back to the Balkans - joining the Serbian Red Cross. In her time off she continued to ride, with one Serbian soldier noting that her talents were wasted as a nurse rather than a soldier.
(Flora Sandes on a Serbian stamp, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Here things might have ended, but then the Serbian Army collapsed under the weight of Austro-Hungarian attacks. Flora had pushed her way to the front lines despite British protests, and was caught up in the Great Retreat through Albania. All the other nursing staff were gone, either dead or having fled. As such there was no use for one nurse.
The Serbs, however, had a long tradition of women joining combat in times of great national crisis, and Flora found herself commissioned as a soldier - a buck private, in fact. She quickly graduated to corporal, arriving ultimately at the rank of Sergeant major. Along the way, she was seriously wounded by a grenade in hand-to-hand fighting in 1916 on the advance to Monastir. For this she was awarded the Order of Karađorđe's Star, Serbia’s highest military decoration. Prevented from returning to front line combat by her wound, she then operated a hospital until the end of the war.
Demobilized in 1922, Flora Sandes left Serbian military service a commissioned officer, the first female - and first foreign - officer in modern Serbian history. Flora would ultimately return to Yugoslavia, surviving the death of her husband (a fellow military officer and White general in the Russian Civil War) and the German Occupation of Yugoslavia, passing away peacefully in 1956 in her English home. Along the way she would give lecture tours about her wartime experiences- always, proudly, in her uniform.
Flora Sandes is one of many, many fascinating examples of women serving in combat, long before such a role even began to be ‘acceptable’ to the societies doing the fighting. More remarkable, though, is the fact that she served openly - a signpost on the journey from women as secret soldiers to women as integral parts of a national war machine. This paralleled the growing rumblings of social change for women in the 20th century, a process that is ongoing today. In looking at her place in the larger picture, however, we must not lose sight of the skills, accomplishments and remarkable character of Flora Sandes herself. To fight in, and survive, WWI is always an achievement - to do it while breaking through barriers like an unstoppable cavalry charge is another level of achievement altogether.
(Courtesy of the Library of Congress online collection)
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