Elsie and Mairi Go to War: Two Extraordinary Women on the
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Atkinson, Diane, PUBLISHER: Pegasus Books, When ong>theong>y met at a motorcycle club in , Elsie Knocker was a thirty year-old motorcycling divorcee dressed in bottle-green Dunhill leaong>theong>rs, ong>andong> Mairi Chisholm was a brilliant eighteen-year old mechanic, living at home borrowing tools from her broong>theong>r. Little did ong>theong>y know, ong>theong>irs was to become one of ong>theong> most extraordinary stories of World War I. In , ong>theong>y roared off to London 'to do ong>theong>ir bit, ' ong>andong> within a month ong>theong>y were in ong>theong> thick of things in Belgium driving ambulances to distant military hospitals. Frustrated by ong>theong> number of men dying of shock in ong>theong> back of ong>theong>ir vehicles, ong>theong>y set up ong>theong>ir own first-aid post on ong>theong> front line in ong>theong> village of Pervyse, near Ypres, risking ong>theong>ir lives working under sniper fire ong>andong> heavy bombardment for months at a time. As news of ong>theong>ir courage ong>andong> expertise spread, ong>theong> 'Angels of Pervyse' became celebrities, visited by journalists ong>andong> photographers as well as royals ong>andong> VIPs. glamorous ong>andong> influential, ong>theong>y were having ong>theong> time of ong>theong>ir lives, ong>andong> for four years Elsie ong>andong> Mairi ong>andong> stayed in Pervyse until ong>theong>y were nearly killed by arsenic gas in ong>theong> spring of . But returning home ong>andong> adjusting to peacetime life-ong>andong> ong>theong> role of women in British society-was to prove more challenging than even ong>theong> war itself.