Lady Dorothie Feilding at War：'Right at the Heart and Pulse of Things'

Lady Dorothie Mary Evelyn Feilding-Moore MM was a British heiress who became a highly decorated volunteer nurse and ambulance driver on the Western Front during the First World War. The first woman to be awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field, she also received the Croix de Guerre and the Order of Leopold II from the Belgians. Christine Cluley has liaised with members of the surviving family and been granted access to material beyond that available from the Feilding Archives. Dorothie’s family have generously shared personal recollections and allowed Christine access to previously unpublished material. These vivid letters reveal Lady Dorothie in her own words, allowing the reader to share her thoughts and actions directly. We see how being part of a loving family in a secure, upper-class household prepared her for the challenges, dangers and deprivations of the First World War and, early in her marriage, the potentially dangerous years in Ireland during the 1920s.

Lady Dorothie was a heroine, but this account of her life reveals that she is more than a plaster saint, that she was a fully rounded woman, by turns determined, courageous, amusing and acerbic. After two years in the hell of the Western Front, she went home to get married – and after a very brief honeymoon, Lady D was back behind the wheel of an ambulance, ferrying the wounded around London.