Six Weeks at the War - Duchess of Sutherland 1914
The summary - WWI first hand account by a remarkable local Scottish socialite who escaped from behind enemy lines in WWI and WWII. The Duchess of Sutherland from 1892 to 1913 - a neighbour to our shop, she would have seen it being built.
The book is paper, 110 years old, the binding is going but its all there and in good condition. Its remarkable that it has survived.
Now the amazing story - A long post in three parts.
First, the special story surrounding the author, Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland.
She married Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower on her 17th birthday and became Duchess of Sutherland in 1892 to 1913. She wasn't supposed to be Duchess initially - when the Dukes father died in 1892 his will was in favour of his Second Wife, the Duke's step mother.
It was contested by Cromartie. In a court process that followed, the Step Mother was found guilty of destroying documents and was imprisoned for six weeks in Holloway Prison. Eventually, the Sutherland family came to an agreement giving Duchess Blair a substantial financial settlement and building a Castle for her - Carbisdale Castle.
At the time the Sutherland Estate extended to 1,358,000 acres and her youngest daughter used to date Edward, Prince of Wales (Edward VIII).
In her time as Duchess of Sutherland she commissioned a technical school for the education of the sons of local crofters. Her husband, 4th Duke of Sutherland donated the land; the major contributors to the cost of construction were The Duke of Sutherland and the American businessman, Andrew Carnegie. The building still stands today and is the Council Offices at Drummuie.
OK, so now you have an idea of how rich, powerful and influential she was in British Society. She used her influence for good, advocating for social reform - earning the nickname Meddlesome Millie.
What happens next is simply remarkable and perhaps a tad underplayed....
After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, she organised an ambulance unit that saw active service in the siege of Namur, Belgium. Trapped behind enemy lines in Belgium, she escaped to England, where she wrote Six Weeks at the War.
Two simple sentences that we could easily take for granted - a member of high society who played a ceremonial role at Edward VIIs coronation rolled her sleeves up and went out to war. She got trapped behind the front line in occupied territory and managed to escape and write her personal account of those six weeks.
Second, that's what this book is - a first hand account of those six weeks in 1914, the first year of the war. The book was printed by the Times Newspaper to raise funds for the Millicent Sutherland Ambulance Car Convoy, Millicent recalls her experiences - in an entry for August 22nd she writes:
‘Never shall I forget the afternoon of August 22…The wounded indeed! Six motor-cars and as many wagons were at the door, and they were carrying in those unhappy fellows. Some were on stretchers, others were supported by willing Red Cross men. One or two of the stragglers fell up the steps from fatigue and lay there. Many of these men had been for three days without food or sleep in the trenches.’
Millie notes that ‘in less than 20 minutes we had 45 wounded in our hands’ – men wounded by shrapnel and bullet wounds. She writes ‘so many of the men were in a state of prostration bordering almost on dementia, that I seemed instantly enveloped in the blight of war. I felt stunned – as if I were passing through an endless nightmare.’
After raising more money, she returned to the continent in October to direct field hospitals in northern France. She moved with her unit to Roubaix in June 1918.
For her war service, she was awarded medals by France, Belgium & Britain (the French Croix de Guerre, the Belgian Royal Red Cross medal, and the British Royal Red Cross).
This lady was a hero!.
Third, is what she did next...
During the war she married her Second Husband, only to divorce him in 1919 on the grounds of his infidelity.
Luckily she found love quickly and married for a third time in October 1919. However, the marriage was unhappy due to her husband's homosexuality, and they divorced in 1925.
A semi-autobiographical novel, That Fool of a Woman, was published in 1924. She lived mostly in France through the 1920s and 1930s, and also travelled.
In 1940 she lived near Angers, France and was captured after the German occupation of France. She escaped again via Spain and Portugal to the United States, and returned to Paris in 1945.
Again, another underplayed two sentences....Millie was 73 when she escaped from behind enemy lines in WWII, just like she did in WWI 26 years previously. 73!!
She died in south-west France in 1955 aged 87. She was cremated at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, her ashes were interred at the Sutherland private cemetery at Dunrobin Castle.
So, just to be clear. This lady had it all - wealth, power, influence and standing in society. She rolled her sleeves up when she could and supported the brave men fighting for our freedom in WW1 - literally on the front line. She got caught behind enemy lines and escaped to write this book - this very book that was printed in 1914.
Later in life, whilst many were retired and enjoying a quiet life she was captured by the Nazis and still managed to escape to the US vis Spain and Portugal, aged 73.
The summary - WWI first hand account by a remarkable local Scottish socialite who escaped from behind enemy lines in WWI and WWII. The Duchess of Sutherland from 1892 to 1913 - a neighbour to our shop, she would have seen it being built.
The book is paper, 110 years old, the binding is going but its all there and in good condition. Its remarkable that it has survived.
Now the amazing story - A long post in three parts.
First, the special story surrounding the author, Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland.
She married Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower on her 17th birthday and became Duchess of Sutherland in 1892 to 1913. She wasn't supposed to be Duchess initially - when the Dukes father died in 1892 his will was in favour of his Second Wife, the Duke's step mother.
It was contested by Cromartie. In a court process that followed, the Step Mother was found guilty of destroying documents and was imprisoned for six weeks in Holloway Prison. Eventually, the Sutherland family came to an agreement giving Duchess Blair a substantial financial settlement and building a Castle for her - Carbisdale Castle.
At the time the Sutherland Estate extended to 1,358,000 acres and her youngest daughter used to date Edward, Prince of Wales (Edward VIII).
In her time as Duchess of Sutherland she commissioned a technical school for the education of the sons of local crofters. Her husband, 4th Duke of Sutherland donated the land; the major contributors to the cost of construction were The Duke of Sutherland and the American businessman, Andrew Carnegie. The building still stands today and is the Council Offices at Drummuie.
OK, so now you have an idea of how rich, powerful and influential she was in British Society. She used her influence for good, advocating for social reform - earning the nickname Meddlesome Millie.
What happens next is simply remarkable and perhaps a tad underplayed....
After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, she organised an ambulance unit that saw active service in the siege of Namur, Belgium. Trapped behind enemy lines in Belgium, she escaped to England, where she wrote Six Weeks at the War.
Two simple sentences that we could easily take for granted - a member of high society who played a ceremonial role at Edward VIIs coronation rolled her sleeves up and went out to war. She got trapped behind the front line in occupied territory and managed to escape and write her personal account of those six weeks.
Second, that's what this book is - a first hand account of those six weeks in 1914, the first year of the war. The book was printed by the Times Newspaper to raise funds for the Millicent Sutherland Ambulance Car Convoy, Millicent recalls her experiences - in an entry for August 22nd she writes:
‘Never shall I forget the afternoon of August 22…The wounded indeed! Six motor-cars and as many wagons were at the door, and they were carrying in those unhappy fellows. Some were on stretchers, others were supported by willing Red Cross men. One or two of the stragglers fell up the steps from fatigue and lay there. Many of these men had been for three days without food or sleep in the trenches.’
Millie notes that ‘in less than 20 minutes we had 45 wounded in our hands’ – men wounded by shrapnel and bullet wounds. She writes ‘so many of the men were in a state of prostration bordering almost on dementia, that I seemed instantly enveloped in the blight of war. I felt stunned – as if I were passing through an endless nightmare.’
After raising more money, she returned to the continent in October to direct field hospitals in northern France. She moved with her unit to Roubaix in June 1918.
For her war service, she was awarded medals by France, Belgium & Britain (the French Croix de Guerre, the Belgian Royal Red Cross medal, and the British Royal Red Cross).
This lady was a hero!.
Third, is what she did next...
During the war she married her Second Husband, only to divorce him in 1919 on the grounds of his infidelity.
Luckily she found love quickly and married for a third time in October 1919. However, the marriage was unhappy due to her husband's homosexuality, and they divorced in 1925.
A semi-autobiographical novel, That Fool of a Woman, was published in 1924. She lived mostly in France through the 1920s and 1930s, and also travelled.
In 1940 she lived near Angers, France and was captured after the German occupation of France. She escaped again via Spain and Portugal to the United States, and returned to Paris in 1945.
Again, another underplayed two sentences....Millie was 73 when she escaped from behind enemy lines in WWII, just like she did in WWI 26 years previously. 73!!
She died in south-west France in 1955 aged 87. She was cremated at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, her ashes were interred at the Sutherland private cemetery at Dunrobin Castle.
So, just to be clear. This lady had it all - wealth, power, influence and standing in society. She rolled her sleeves up when she could and supported the brave men fighting for our freedom in WW1 - literally on the front line. She got caught behind enemy lines and escaped to write this book - this very book that was printed in 1914.
Later in life, whilst many were retired and enjoying a quiet life she was captured by the Nazis and still managed to escape to the US vis Spain and Portugal, aged 73.
The summary - WWI first hand account by a remarkable local Scottish socialite who escaped from behind enemy lines in WWI and WWII. The Duchess of Sutherland from 1892 to 1913 - a neighbour to our shop, she would have seen it being built.
The book is paper, 110 years old, the binding is going but its all there and in good condition. Its remarkable that it has survived.
Now the amazing story - A long post in three parts.
First, the special story surrounding the author, Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland.
She married Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower on her 17th birthday and became Duchess of Sutherland in 1892 to 1913. She wasn't supposed to be Duchess initially - when the Dukes father died in 1892 his will was in favour of his Second Wife, the Duke's step mother.
It was contested by Cromartie. In a court process that followed, the Step Mother was found guilty of destroying documents and was imprisoned for six weeks in Holloway Prison. Eventually, the Sutherland family came to an agreement giving Duchess Blair a substantial financial settlement and building a Castle for her - Carbisdale Castle.
At the time the Sutherland Estate extended to 1,358,000 acres and her youngest daughter used to date Edward, Prince of Wales (Edward VIII).
In her time as Duchess of Sutherland she commissioned a technical school for the education of the sons of local crofters. Her husband, 4th Duke of Sutherland donated the land; the major contributors to the cost of construction were The Duke of Sutherland and the American businessman, Andrew Carnegie. The building still stands today and is the Council Offices at Drummuie.
OK, so now you have an idea of how rich, powerful and influential she was in British Society. She used her influence for good, advocating for social reform - earning the nickname Meddlesome Millie.
What happens next is simply remarkable and perhaps a tad underplayed....
After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, she organised an ambulance unit that saw active service in the siege of Namur, Belgium. Trapped behind enemy lines in Belgium, she escaped to England, where she wrote Six Weeks at the War.
Two simple sentences that we could easily take for granted - a member of high society who played a ceremonial role at Edward VIIs coronation rolled her sleeves up and went out to war. She got trapped behind the front line in occupied territory and managed to escape and write her personal account of those six weeks.
Second, that's what this book is - a first hand account of those six weeks in 1914, the first year of the war. The book was printed by the Times Newspaper to raise funds for the Millicent Sutherland Ambulance Car Convoy, Millicent recalls her experiences - in an entry for August 22nd she writes:
‘Never shall I forget the afternoon of August 22…The wounded indeed! Six motor-cars and as many wagons were at the door, and they were carrying in those unhappy fellows. Some were on stretchers, others were supported by willing Red Cross men. One or two of the stragglers fell up the steps from fatigue and lay there. Many of these men had been for three days without food or sleep in the trenches.’
Millie notes that ‘in less than 20 minutes we had 45 wounded in our hands’ – men wounded by shrapnel and bullet wounds. She writes ‘so many of the men were in a state of prostration bordering almost on dementia, that I seemed instantly enveloped in the blight of war. I felt stunned – as if I were passing through an endless nightmare.’
After raising more money, she returned to the continent in October to direct field hospitals in northern France. She moved with her unit to Roubaix in June 1918.
For her war service, she was awarded medals by France, Belgium & Britain (the French Croix de Guerre, the Belgian Royal Red Cross medal, and the British Royal Red Cross).
This lady was a hero!.
Third, is what she did next...
During the war she married her Second Husband, only to divorce him in 1919 on the grounds of his infidelity.
Luckily she found love quickly and married for a third time in October 1919. However, the marriage was unhappy due to her husband's homosexuality, and they divorced in 1925.
A semi-autobiographical novel, That Fool of a Woman, was published in 1924. She lived mostly in France through the 1920s and 1930s, and also travelled.
In 1940 she lived near Angers, France and was captured after the German occupation of France. She escaped again via Spain and Portugal to the United States, and returned to Paris in 1945.
Again, another underplayed two sentences....Millie was 73 when she escaped from behind enemy lines in WWII, just like she did in WWI 26 years previously. 73!!
She died in south-west France in 1955 aged 87. She was cremated at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, her ashes were interred at the Sutherland private cemetery at Dunrobin Castle.
So, just to be clear. This lady had it all - wealth, power, influence and standing in society. She rolled her sleeves up when she could and supported the brave men fighting for our freedom in WW1 - literally on the front line. She got caught behind enemy lines and escaped to write this book - this very book that was printed in 1914.
Later in life, whilst many were retired and enjoying a quiet life she was captured by the Nazis and still managed to escape to the US vis Spain and Portugal, aged 73.