LOUISE MILLER Until she was injured and decorated Flora's heroics had gone unnoticed back home

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From her early days in the 19th century she set about rectifying that by behaving like a tomboy and it was a trait the rector’s daughter carried into adulthood. The youngest of eight siblings in a middle-class family, Edwardian convention dictated that she played the piano and followed other genteel pursuits. Instead she enjoyed drinking, smoking, playing cards, shooting and racing cars. In 1908 Flora, who was born in Yorkshire but grew up in rural Suffolk, became one of the first women to hold a driving licence. Underpinning everything she did was an unquenchable thirst for adventure.

She was driven by a love of adventure. Flora was a fearless woman and a total adrenaline-junkie. Louise Miller

She travelled across the US, worked as a secretary in Cairo and camped out in the Canadian wilderness. However, she will be remembered as the only woman to fight on the frontline during the First World War – and she was in the thick of the action exactly 100 years ago. Thirty-eight when the conflict began, Flora regarded war as another opportunity to test her mettle.

LOUISE MILLER Flora was thirty-eight when WWI began

She was on a camping holiday but raced back to London in her sports car and volunteered to serve at a British military hospital. Though she’d nicknamed herself “Jack”, she was turned down and instead joined the Red Cross as a nurse. Within eight days of war breaking out Flora was among a group of women who paid their own way and travelled to Serbia to treat injured soldiers. Initially she worked well away from the fighting but she yearned to be in the thick of the action and was soon based in a field hospital. Once at the front she persuaded Serbian military commanders that she was capable of joining the army and was given a uniform. Flora, who is said to have been inspired by Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem The Charge Of The Light Brigade, excelled in hand-to-hand fighting. With her hair cropped short it is unlikely the enemy had any idea of her sex and she was treated just like any other soldier by her Serbian comrades. In the winter of 1915 and 1916, as her army was overrun by German, Hungarian and Bulgarian forces, Flora was caught up in the Serbian retreat through Albania to Corfu. It involved travelling through mountains in appalling conditions and she and her male colleagues suffered greatly. It is thought up to 100,000 Serbs and their families perished.

GETTY Flora Sandes was the only woman who fought in the frontline during WWI

In November 1916, while serving in Macedonia, Flora was wounded by a grenade as she defended her position against a surprise Bulgarian attack. Her lieutenant risked his own life by dragging Flora to safety under heavy fire. The blast caused serious injuries to her back, arm and leg but she survived. Flora was awarded the Star of Karageorge, the highest Serbian military honour for courage under fire. Louise Miller, author of a biography about the Briton, A Fine Brother: The Life Of Captain Flora Sandes, says: “For her, going to war was never really a moral crusade or a political statement about sex equality. She was driven by a love of adventure. Flora was a fearless woman and a total adrenaline-junkie. “She joined the Serbian army unofficially at a time when the war was not going well. Flora wanted to fight and insisted on going to the front. She was promoted rapidly, all the way to captain, and other soldiers addressed her as ‘brother’.” Playing down her life-threatening injuries, which she described as “rather painful”, Flora spent the remainder of the conflict running a hospital. In all she received seven medals for her wartime exploits. Until she was injured and decorated Flora’s heroics had gone largely unnoticed back home but her bravery brought her to the attention of the world. The Daily Express ran a front-page story and she became a subject of fascination. In Thornton Heath, Croydon, where she also briefly lived, there is still a pub bearing her name. Flora was sometimes portrayed as some sort of Amazonian superwoman but the reality was altogether different. One army officer recalled: “I found a sweet-faced woman, bordering on middle age, with short grey hair and a pleasant voice.” Louise Miller adds: “Flora surprised a lot of people. She had a dry sense of humour and was well known for playing practical jokes. She loved having fun.” After the war Flora remained in the Serbian army for four years but when she was demobilised found it hard to readjust to civilian life. She described it as “dull and irksome” and for a while she drove a taxi in Belgrade, creating another record by becoming the first woman to do so.

GETTY Flora is described as a sweet-faced woman with a pleasant voice by those who knew her

Flora also exploited her fame to continue travelling, giving lectures about her war service all over the world. In 1927 she married a former Russian army officer, Yuri Yudenitch, who was 12 years her junior. But anyone who thought wedlock would lead to a more mundane existence for Flora was to be mistaken. In 1941, when the world was again at war, the couple were living in the new kingdom of Yugoslavia. That year the Nazis invaded and Flora, then 65, dusted down her old uniform with the intention of joining the fight. Soon she found herself imprisoned but even this setback did not dim her incredible spirit. For once, being a woman proved useful as she disguised herself in very feminine clothes and, under the noses of the Gestapo, simply walked out of the gates of the detention centre. However, she was recaptured and for the rest of the war had to report to the Germans every week. Her husband died from heart failure in 1941. After the war Flora continued her adventures, travelling to Israel and Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe) before finally settling in Wickham Market, Suffolk.