Phoebe Hessel: The Amazon of Stepney & Brighton

PHOEBE HESSEL

Phoebe, who was born in Limehouse London, was known as “The Amazon of Stepney” and allegedly spent 17 years serving in the British Army, disguised as a man before becoming one of Brighton's oldest and most celebrated residents. However, it is often very difficult to separate the fiction from the facts when recounting Phoebe Hessel’s very unusual life story.

Born Phoebe Smith at Limehouse in 1713, she was baptised at St Dunstan’s Church in Stepney on 13 April 1713. Some sources indicate that her father was a soldier who disguised his young daughter as a boy after the death of her mother and smuggled her into the British army, where she became a fife and drum player.

Other accounts say that aged 15, in 1728 Phoebe fell in love with a soldier called William Golding and subsequently enlisted in the Fifth Foot Regiment to remain with him when he was posted to the West Indies and Gibraltar. In 1745 she was wounded in the arm by a bayonet at the Battle of Fontenoy, but when Golding was wounded and invalided home too, Phoebe was said to have revealed her true sex to the commanding officer's wife after which both she and Golding were honourably discharged. She was given no punishment, but had her salary paid out as any other soldier who was discharged from the army.

Linda Grant de Pauw tells a slightly different story in Battlecries and Lullabies: Women in War from Prehistory to the Present (University of Oklahoma 1998). She believes on the evidence of a sergeant of the 13th Light Dragoons, that Phoebe was sentenced to the lash for some breach of discipline. Her sex was initially revealed when she was undressed to be whipped, upon which she only commented: "Strike and be damned!"  The flogging story may or may not be true. It feels like a stock element of the woman-soldier-in-disguise story that was so popular in Georgian plays and ballads but, as evidence shows, these ballads were often based on real facts.

Phoebe and William Golding were married for about twenty years and after their discharge they lived in Plymouth where they had nine children, eight of whom died in infancy - sadly their only surviving son died later at sea.

After Golding's death Phoebe settled in Brighton and married fisherman Thomas Hessel. He died when she was aged 80. After Hessel’s death, she was given three guineas from the parish, so Phoebe bought a donkey and hawked fish and other goods in nearby villages to make a living. 

After overhearing a conversation in a Shoreham inn one day, she provided key evidence resulting in the conviction and execution at Goldstone Bottom of one Mr James Rooke for robbery. Highwayman Rook and Howell his accomplice stole a horse and robbed the post boy of half a guinea. Horse stealing and robbing the mail were both capital offences, so the two were hanged at Horsham where their execution was watched by 1400 spectators. Their corpses were tarred and placed in a gibbet that hung at Hangleton bottom. Rook's mother, was said to have waited beneath the gibbet for her son's bones to drop and then collected them in her apron so she could bury him piece by piece. Nearly 100 years later, Alfred Lord Tennyson found this story so moving, that he wrote the poem 'Rispah' to tell the world about it.

In about 1800, when she was eighty-seven years old, Phoebe was selling ginger-bread, oranges and apples at the corner of Old Steine and Marine Parade near the Brighton Pavilion. Clad in a brown serge dress, with a spotless white apron and a hooded black cloak, her only concession to her increasingly great age was a stout oak walking stick. She became very well known in Brighton, due to her great age and unusual experiences but not long after this she was taken into the workhouse.

She discharged herself from the workhouse in August 1806 and in 1808 was granted a pension of a half guinea per week by the Prince of Wales. As the oldest inhabitant in the town she was entitled to sit beside the vicar at a Napoleonic celebration dinner on the Level on 12 August 1814, and, although now blind, she also attended the town's coronation celebrations on 19 July 1821.

Phoebe Hessel died on 12 December 1821 at the grand age of 108 and a local pawnbroker Hyam Lewis paid for the large gravestone to be placed in her honour. 

Research has often revealed conflicting evidence with Phoebe's story; and it was only later in her life that she recalled all her military exploits. It has been suggested by sceptics that the army tale was merely a good story designed to encourage listeners to open their purses to her and help her stave off poverty

PHOEBE HESSEL'S GRAVESTONE

However, the Northumberland Fusiliers, successors to Phoebe's alleged regiment, certainly believe the story to be true as they restored her grave at the Church of St. Nicholas, Brighton in the 1970s.

Her gravestone reads:

In memory of Phoebe Hessel who was born at Stepney in the year 1713. She served for many Years as a private Soldier in the 5th Regt of Foot in different parts of Europe and in the Year 1745 fought under the command of the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Fontenoy where she received a Bayonet wound in her Arm. Her long life which commenced in the time of Queen Anne extended to the reign of George IV by whose munificence she received and support in her latter years. Died at Brighton where she had long resided, 12 December, 1821. Aged 108 years.

Amazon Street and Hessel Street (both named in her honour) still exist today in Stepney in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Phoebe is also immortalized on one of Brighton’s buses, all of which are named after famous residents.

Nakano Takeko: The Japanese Female Samurai

Nakano Takeko was a Japanese female warrior of the Aizu domain, who fought and died during the Boshin War. 

Nakano, born in Edo, was the daughter of Nakano Heinai, an Aizu official. She was thoroughly trained in the martial and literary arts, and was adopted by her teacher Akaoka Daisuke.

After working with her adoptive father as a martial arts instructor during the 1860s, Nakano entered Aizu for the first time in 1868. During the Battle of Aizu, she fought with a naginata (a Japanese polearm) and was the leader of an ad hoc corps of female combatants who fought in the battle independently, as the senior Aizu retainers did not allow them to fight as an official part of the domain's army. This unit was later retroactively called the Women's Army or Jōshitai.

Whilst leading a charge against Imperial Japanese Army troops of the Ōgaki Domain, she received a bullet to the chest. Rather than let the enemy capture her head as a trophy, she asked her sister, Yūko, to cut it off and have it buried. It was taken to Hōkai-ji Temple (in modern-day Aizubange, Fukushima) and buried under a pine tree.

A monument to her was erected beside her grave at Hōkai-ji; Aizu native and Imperial Japanese Navy admiral Dewa Shigetō was involved in its construction.

During the annual Aizu Autumn Festival, a group of young girls wearing hakama and white headbands take part in the procession, commemorating the actions of Nakano and her band of women fighters of the Joshigun.

Phyllis Latour Doyle: S.O.E Agent & Radio Operator in World War Two

The Second World War produced many courageous people, including the female operatives of the British Special Operations Executive, also known as S.O.E.  One of these incredible young women was a South African girl from Durban, named Phyllis or “Pippa” Latour. This intrepid lady served in occupied France for over three years, working under the very noses of the German’s, and courting danger at every turn. Of  SOE's 55 female agents, at least  thirteen were killed in action or died in Nazi concentration camps.

Phyllis Ada Latour was born in Durban, South Africa, on the 8 April 1921. Her mother Louise was a British Citizen and her father, Philippe Latour, was a French doctor. In 1939 Phyllis left South Africa to finish her education in Europe - just as war was being declared.  She originally joined the RAF in 1941 to train as a flight mechanic and her Service Number was 718483. She was fluent in French and the secret services soon spotted her immense potential. She was commissioned as an Honorary Section Officer on 1 November 1943.

“It wasn’t until after my first round of training that they told me they wanted me to become a member of the SOE,” she said in a rare interview five years ago, “They said I could have three days to think about it. I told them I didn’t need three days to make a decision; I’d take the job now.”

A close family friend – her godmother’s father – had been shot by the Germans and her godmother had committed suicide after being taken prisoner by the Nazis. “I did it for revenge,” Mrs Doyle told the New Zealand Army News magazine in 2009.

S.O.E TRAINING SHEET ON HOW TO DISGUISE YOURSELF

As well as extensive physical fitness training, Mrs Doyle told how one of their instructors was ‘a cat burglar who had been taken out of prison to train us’. She said: ‘we learned how to get in a high window and down drainpipes, how to climb over roofs without being caught.’ She also had to “undergo a course of commando training, which included 14 parachute jumps”.

She was eventually parachuted behind Nazi lines and risked her life gathering vital information on enemy positions ahead of the D-Day landings. She was given many different code names – including Genevieve, Plus Fours and Lampooner.  “Genevieve” was the original name of the patron saint of Paris - a shepherd’s daughter who lived in the 5th-century, and who encouraged the citizens when threatened by Attila and the Huns, and also brought them aid when Childeric attacked the city.

She was first deployed in Aquitaine, Vichy France from 1942. She was then dropped into the Calvados area of Normandy on May 1, 1944 to operate as part of the Scientist circuit. She worked as a wireless operator with Resisitance member Claude de Baissac who was also a southern-African, hailing from Mauritius, and his sister Lisé de Baissac (the courier). This meant sleeping rough in forests or staying with other Allied sympathisers. “One family I stayed with told me we were eating squirrel,” she told the Army News, “I found out later it was rat. I was half starved so I didn’t care.”

She entered France several times by parachute, spending lengthy periods engaged in propaganda work. She made her reports and received her instructions by radio. Sometimes she lived as one of an ordinary French provincial family; at other times she worked on farms or at other apparently normal occupations. Maintaining her incognito was made more difficult by the frequent searches and inspections of documents to which the local population was subjected. Although then aged 23, she assumed the identity of a poor 14-year-old French girl, selling soap to German soldiers to make them less suspicious.

S.O.E. SURVIVAL KIT AND RADIO SET

Hidden on pieces of silk among the brave young woman’s knitting were her secret codes.

It was lonely work in a land of strangers, and anxiety was an ever-present emotion – anxiety as to what was happening to family and friends, with whom she could not communicate; anxiety about making contact with certain persons at specific times, and the endless anxiety as to how long the deception could be kept up. If she encountered the enemy she would ‘talk so much about anything and everything trying to be ‘‘helpful’’, and they’d get sick of me’.

On one occasion Gestapo agents mistakenly took Latour and her colleagues as simple peasants and “questioned them closely about some suspected persons who were obviously none other than themselves”. On another occasion German soldiers actually hung their wet washing on a supposed clothes line that was in fact none other than the aerial of her portable receiving set!

In total, Phyllis transmitted 135 secret messages to Britain via radio sets after linking up with the French Resistance. She used bicycles to tour the area, passing on information to allied command. The messages would take half an hour to send and the Germans an hour and a half to trace the signal. She would have just enough time to send her message and move on before being discovered.

RADIO EQUIPMENT

Mrs Doyle also told Army News how she once sent a message requesting a German listening post be taken out by bombers, but a German woman and two children died.

‘I heard I was responsible for their deaths. It was a horrible feeling,’ she said. “I later attended the funeral of a grandmother, her daughter and her two grandchildren, knowing I had indirectly caused their deaths. I can imagine the bomber pilots patting each other on the back and offering congratulations after a strike. But they never saw the carnage that was left. I always saw it, and I don’t think I will ever forget it.’

After the War II she married an Australian engineer called Patrick Doyle. They went to live in Kenya where she had previously gone to school, and then moved to Fiji, and Australia. She now lives in Auckland, New Zealand. She and her husband had four children and divorced in the mid-1970s.

Her former bridesmaid, Barbara Blake, 91, who lives in north London, said her friend had never wanted publicity for her deeds. For decades she had remained in the shadows; a reluctant heroine with an astonishing past but the 93-year-old former British spy stepped back into the limelight  when she was awarded the Legion of Honour on Tuesday November 25, 2014. 

PHYLLIS LATOUR DOYLE'S MEDALS

She only revealed her story to her children after her eldest son had read something about her online. 

"15 years ago I finally told my children about my past. They insisted I send off for my medals. So I did." After the war she was awarded Parachute Regiment wings, an MBE, and the Croix de Guerre. “I was asked if I wanted them to be formally presented to me, and I said no, I didn’t, it was my family who wanted them.”

Laurent Contini, the French ambassador to New Zealand said:

‘Pippa stands out as a formidable example for younger and older generations alike.  As part of its commemorations of the 70th anniversary of D-Day, France is recognizing military veterans and civilians who fought in the Second World War. I have deep admiration for her bravery and it will be with great honour that I will present her with the award of Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest decoration.”

Mrs Doyle, who was helped by two of her sons, said nothing publicly beyond remarking that it was a ‘privilege and honour’ to receive the medal.

Milunka Savić: The Most Decorated Woman in the History of War

Milunka Savić was a Serbian war heroine who fought in the Balkan Wars and in World War I. She is recognized as the most-decorated female combatant in the entire history of warfare. She was wounded no fewer than nine times during her term-of-service.

Savić was born in 1890, in the village of Koprivnica, near Raška, in Serbia. In 1913, her brother received call-up papers for mobilization for the Second Balkan War. She chose to go in his place—cutting her hair and donning men's clothes and joining the Serbian army. 

She was a patriot but she was also eager to escape from the boredom of Village life.

She quickly saw action and received her first medal and was promoted to corporal in the Battle of Bregalnica. Engaged in battle, she sustained wounds and it was only then, when recovering from her injuries in hospital, that her true gender was revealed, much to the surprise of the attending physicians.

Savic was called before her commanding officer. They didn't want to punish her, because she had proven a valuable and highly competent soldier. The military deployment that had resulted in her gender being revealed had been her tenth..

 She was offered a transfer to the Nursing division. Savic stood to attention and insisted she only wanted to fight for her country as a combatant. The officer said he'd think it over and give her his answer the next day. Still standing to attention, Savic responded, "I will wait." It is said he only made her stand an hour before agreeing to send her back to the infantry."

In 1914, in the early days of World War I, Savić was awarded her first Karađorđe Star with Swords after the Battle of Kolubara. She received her second Karađorđe Star (with Swords) after the Battle of Crna Reka in 1916 when she captured 23 Bulgarian soldiers single-handed.

She was awarded the French Légion d’Honneur (Legion of Honour) twice, Russian Cross of St. George, British medal of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael, and the Serbian Miloš Obilić medal. She was the sole female recipient of the French Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 with the gold palm attribute for service in World War I.

She was demobilised in 1919, and turned down an offer to move to France, where she was eligible to collect a comfortable French army pension. Instead, she chose to live in Belgrade and found work as a postal worker.

 In 1923, she married Veljko Gligorijević, whom she met in Mostar but they divorced immediately after the birth of their daughter Milena.

 In the interwar period, Milunka was largely forgotten by the general public. She worked several menial jobs up to 1927, after which she had steady employment as a cleaning lady in the State Mortgage Bank. Eight years later, she was promoted to cleaning the offices of the general manager.

During the Second World War she operated a small hospital to treat wounded partisans. She refused to attend a banquet organized by Milan Nedić, which was to be attended by German generals and officers.  She was arrested and taken to Banjica concentration camp, where she was imprisoned for ten months.

After the advent of socialism in 1945, she was given a state pension, and continued to live in her house in Belgrade's Voždovac neighborhood. By the late 1950s her daughter was in hospital, and she was living in a crumbling house in Voždovac with her three other adopted children: Milka, a forgotten child from the railway station in Stalac; Radmila-Višnja; and Zorka, a fatherless girl from Dalmatia.

Later, when she attended the jubilee celebrations wearing her military medals, other military officers spoke with her and heard of her courageous actions. News spread and at last she gained recognition. In 1972, public pressure and a newspaper article highlighting her difficult housing and financial situation led to her being given a small apartment by the Belgrade City Assembly.

She died of a stroke in Belgrade on 5 October 1973, aged 84, and was buried in Novo groblje in the Alley of the Meritorious with full the state and military honors.

A Street in Belgrade is named after her and Museums have also celebrated her achievements.