A Fine Brother: The Life of Captain Flora Sandes

by Louise Miller

54 She was then at work for the Ministry of Child Welfare. See: ESRC/HA; diary entry, 3rd September 1919, IWM/MM.

  55 APT, p. 142.

  56 Diary entry, 3rd June 1919, LU/RV; APT, pp. 142–43.

  57 APT, pp. 146–48.

  58 IMC, pp. 77–78. See also: diary entry, 3rd June 1919, LU/RV; ISL, p. 196.

  59 IMC, p. 74.

  60 WWU, pp. 224–25.

  61 Boyce Gaddes, Evelina: Outward Bound from Inverlochy (Gloucester: Merlin Books, 1995), p. 118. See also ‘Account of the Work of Evelina Haverfield in Serbia’, WL/VH.

  62 APT, p. 149.

  63 See: WWU, p. 216; diary entry, 22nd October 1919, IWM/MM; IMC, p. 84; ISL, p. 198.

  64 See ISL, p. 197.

  65 Transcript of Tape 480, LU/RV.

  66 ISL, pp. 197–98; WWU, p. 212.

  67 APT, p. 152.

  68 See: APT, p. 155; ESRC/HA.

  69 APT, p. 153.

  70 See ‘Nursing Service, American Red Cross, Commission to Europe’, ESRC.

  71 APT, p. 162.

  72 APT, pp. 28, 31–32, 167.

  73 See ISL, pp. 200–201.

  74 APT, p. 191.

  75 ISL, p. 203.

  Chapter 17

  1 AWS, p. 195.

  2 AWS, pp. 214–17.

  3 AWS, pp. 216–17.

  4 MAS, p. 186. See also HARCN, p. 1180.

  5 See: EWB, p. 79; WWU, pp. 223, 285–86.

  6 AWS, pp. 217–18.

  7 WL/VHII.

  8 Yurie’s service document, FSC.

  9 AWS, pp. 215–17; WL/VHII.

  10 WL/VHII.

  11 WL/VHII.

  12 Alan Clark, ed., A Good Innings: The Private Papers of Viscount Lee of Fareham (London: John Murray, 1974), p. 228.

  13 ESF.

  14 See: NYT/SCH; EYS, p. 78; IWM/EA.

  15 See: EYS, p. 81; OWW, pp. 192, 194.

  16 EYS, p. 81.

  17 AWS, p. 218.

  18 AWS, p. 220.

  19 AWS, p. 220.

  20 BC/SMI.

  21 AWS, p. 220.

  22 IWM/EA.

  23 IWM/EA.

  24 AWS, pp. 210, 221.

  25 ISL, pp. 208, 213, 218.

  26 OWW, p. 169.

  Chapter 18

  1 WL/VHI. Flora did not specify which sister she was staying with, but it would have either been Fanny or Sophia, both of whom lived there.

  2 With many thanks to Ben Johnston for passing on his aunt’s recollection.

  3 WL/VHI.

  4 See Times, 30th April, 6th May, 16th May, 22nd May, 4th June 1925.

  5 WL/VHI.

  6 WL/VHI.

  7 WIY, pp. 201–202.

  8 AWS, p. 38.

  9Times Literary Supplement, 26th May 1927, p. 378; George Sampson, ‘Seven Stories and a Dream’, Observer, 10th April 1927; ‘New Books’, Manchester Guardian, 4th April 1927. See also: ‘Woman Soldier’, Daily Mirror, 1st April 1927; ‘A Woman Soldier’, Scotsman, 11th July 1927.

  10 See James E. Hassell, Russian Refugees in France and the United States Between the World Wars (Darby, PA: Diane Publishing, 1991), p. 58.

  11 Flora’s notes on what she was doing on 1st January 1928 and 1929, FSC.

  12 See ‘Milestones’, Time Magazine, 27th July 1942.

  13 EAT/FH. See also: ‘Lowdown on High Kicks’, Daily Mirror, 22nd August 1979; Doremy Vernon, Tiller’s Girls (London: Robson Books, 1988), pp. 74–76.

  14 See: BLGF, p. 601; WBH, p. 392; BAL, p. 430.

  15 See: BAL, p. 428; MMH, p. 48.

  16 RD, p. 222.

  17 AWS, p. 221.

  18 FSC/D, 15th May 1932, 29th September 1934.

  19 FSC/D, 19th April 1932.

  20 See: ‘English Woman Honoured’, Observer, 10th June 1934; ‘The Gallipoli Pilgrimage’, Manchester Guardian, 5th June 1936; ‘Editor’s Dump’, Mosquito, No. 117, March 1957; WIY, p. 189.

  21 See ‘Medical News’, British Medical Journal, 19th December 1925.

  22 ESRC/LET.

  23 Flora Sandes, ‘British Magic, A Glimpse of the Anglo-Serbian Children’s Hospital’, The World’s Children [the magazine of the Save the Children Fund], January 1927.

  24 See ‘Belgrade Hospital’ [letter to the editor], Times, 28th December 1927.

  25 RD, p. 188.

  26 See: ‘Scottish Enterprise’, Scotsman, 27th October 1927; ‘Children’s Hospital, Belgrade’, Times, 1st October 1929; ‘Scottish Serbian Hospital’, British Medical Journal, 12th November 1927.

  27 See EYS, p. 110.

  28 See EYS, pp. 127, 143.

  29 Diary entry, 22nd September 1934, WL/VH.

  30 See EYS, p. 128.

  31 FSC/D, 23rd September 1934.

  32 FSC/D, 4th, 13th July 1936.

  33 FSC/D, 13th–17th August 1931.

  34 See ‘King of Yugoslavia Murdered’, Times, 10th October 1934.

  35 See BLGF, p. 615.

  36 FSC/D, 18th October 1934.

  37 See: ‘Funeral of King Alexander’, Scotsman, 19th October 1934; ‘Last Rites in Belgrade’, Times, 19th October 1934.

  38 See FY, p. 104.

  39 BAL, p. 436.

  40 See: BAL, p. 473; BLGF, p. 1135; HT/RB, p. 193; PH/OP, p. 376.

  41 BE, p. 29.

  42 BE, p. 42.

  43 See: PH/OP, p. 376; BAL, p. 472; HT/RB, p. 194.

  44 See: HT/RB, p. 192; FY, p. 131; WCF, p. 22; PH/OP, p. 376.

  45 BE, p. 72.

  46 EYS, pp. 143–44.

  47 DMH, p. 186.

  48 See: ISL, p. 212; WCF, p. 21; QM, p. 210.

  49 FSC/D, 16th, 20th, 22nd August 1940.

  50 EYS, p. 146.

  51 WCF, p. 24.

  52 SCW, p. 70; HT/RB, p. 195; NAV, pp. 131, 137, 143.

  53 WCF, p. 26. She Anglicized her surname from Jovičić.

  54 EYS, p. 146.

  55 See: BLGF, p. 1136; SCW, p. 71; HT/RB, p. 195; NAV, pp. 137, 147, 149.

  56 LS, pp. 178–79.

  57 EYS, p. 147.

  58 BAL, p. 475.

  59 HT/RB, p. 192; PH/OP, p. 378.

  60 LS, pp. 179.

  61 JS/WE.

  62 LS, pp. 179–80.

  63 JS/WE.

  64 SCW, p. 74. See also: NAV, pp. 165–69; LBN, pp. 206–207.

  65 JS/WE.

  66 WCF, p. 23; BE, p. 49.

  67 FLSP, pp. 26–28; WV, p. 10; NAV, pp. 179–81; BAL, p. 476; LM/CY, p. 105.

  68 PH/OP, p. 378.

  69 ‘Sergeant Flora’, Daily Herald, 5th April 1941.

  Chapter 19

  1 PH/OP, p. 379.

  2 See: LM/CY, p. 108; SCW, p. 86; JS/WE; Boris Todorovich, Last Words: A Memoir of World War II and the Yugoslav Tragedy (New York, NY: Walker & Co., 1989), p. 4.

  3 NAV, p. 193; FLSP, pp. 38–39.

  4 FSC/D, 6th April 1941; FSC/HWL.

  5 EYS, p. 149.

  6 See: PH/OP, p. 379; NAV, pp. 190–204; LBN, p. 225.

  7 JS/WE. See also NAV, p. 203.

  8 See: FLSP, p. 41; WCF, pp. 39–40; LBN, p. 233.

  9 PH/OP, p. 379; DMH, p. 198.

  10 EYS, p. 147.

  11 JS/WE.

  12 EYS, p. 167.

  13 See NAV, pp. 177–78.

  14 NAV, p. 220.

  15 See: HT/RB, p. 193; PH/OP, p. 391; James L. Collins, Jr, ed., The Marshall Cavendish Illustrated Encyclopedia of World War II, Vol. IV (New York, NY: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1972), p. 466.

  16 BC/SMI.

  17 JS/WE.

  18 Cecil Brown, Suez to Singapore (Garden City, NY: Halcyon House, 1943), p. 6.

  19 NAV, p. 279; LM/CY, p. 111.

  20 WCF, pp. 68–69.

  21 See: PH/OP, p. 391; LM/CY, p. 111.

  22 JS/WE; FSC/D, 13th April 1941.

  23 JS/WE.

  24 See: PH/OP, p. 391; AFT, pp. 154–56.

  25 EYS, p. 168; IWM/EA. See also BE, pp. 101, 156.

  26 See: SCW, p. 105; BE, p. 64.

  27 BE, p. 132. See also NAV, p. 264.

  28 T/ABL.


  29 See: BE, p. 133; NAV, pp. 266–67.

  30 BE, p. 134.

  31 EYS, p. 169; NAV, p. 267; BE, pp. 135–36.

  32 FSC/D, 13th April 1941; JS/WE.

  33 FSC/D, 14th, 16th April 1941.

  34 JS/WE.

  35 FSC/D, 20th April 1941.

  36 See: SCW, p. 192; JS/WE.

  37 JS/WE.

  38 WCF, p. 89.

  39 JS/WE.

  40 LM/CY, p. 111; NAV, p. 281.

  41 WCF, p. 198.

  42 FSC/D, 8th May 1941.

  43 See: SCW, p. 166; NAV, pp. 280, 283.

  44 WCF, pp. 77–78, 80.

  45 WCF, pp. 78–79.

  46 JS/WE.

  47 NAV, p. 268.

  48 IWM/EA; BE, pp. 136–37, 139; DMH, p. 224.

  49 EYS, p. 170. See also NAV, p. 269.

  50 See NAV, p. 270.

  51 BE, p. 155; EYS, p. 171.

  52 JS/WE.

  53 FSC/LET to Fanny, 24th June 1941.

  54 See WCF, p. 77.

  55 JS/WE.

  56 See SCW, p. 174.

  57 Revd M.D. Krmpotić, ‘Serb and Croat Rivalry for Bosnia’, Current History, September 1916, pp. 1080, 1082. See also ‘Jugo Slavs Quit Serbian Corps in Defense of Autonomy’, Washington Post, 7th August 1917.

  58 BAL, p. 498.

  59 See: EA, p. 265; BAL, pp. 486–87.

  60 SCW, p. 253.

  61 See: BAL, pp. 497–98; Edward Alexander, The Holocaust and the War of Ideas (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1994), p. 116.

  62 See: WCF, pp. 94–95; WV, p. 76.

  63 Jovo Anđić, ‘On a Quest for the Essence of Things: Stanislav Vinaver’, Belguest, Vol. IX, Spring 2009, p. 24.

  64 See: WCF, p. 95; BAL, pp. 504–506; WV, p. 77; SCW, p. 262.

  65 See BAL, p. 486.

  66 One of the boys was the brother of my friend, the late Dr Žarko Vuković, who did more than anyone to keep the memory alive of the work of British women in Serbia in the First World War. That same month, over seventeen hundred men and a handful of women were also massacred in the town of Kraljevo. See BAL, pp. 490–91.

  67 WRY, pp. 146, 166; EA, p. 243; BAL, p. 489; WV, pp. 101–103.

  68 EYS, p. 244.

  69 Flora was given one of these when one of the women was transferred out. See FSC/D, 25th June 1941. Her diary entries for 24th June to 5th July 1941 must have been written after her release from prison. See also SCW, p. 174.

  70 SCW, p. 175; JS/WE; FSC/D, 24th June 1941.

  71 FSC/HWL; JS/WE.

  72 FLSP, p. 55.

  73 SCW, p. 192.

  74 SCW, pp. 177–79.

  75 JS/WE; SCW, pp. 178–79.

  76 SCW, p. 181; FSC/HWL.

  77 FSC/HWL.

  78 SCW, p. 192.

  79 T/ABL. See also BE, p. 162.

  80 See BE, pp. 163–65.

  81 See EYS, p. 172.

  82 BE, p. 169.

  83 T/ABL.

  84 SCW, pp. 183–91.

  85 FSC/D, 25th June 1941.

  86 SCW, p. 192.

  87 SCW, p. 193; FSC/D, 24th June–5th July 1941.

  88 JS/WE.

  89 FSC/D, 5th July 1941; JS/WE.

  90 FSC/D, 5th, 6th July 1941.

  91 FSC/D, 7th, 19th July 1941.

  92 See: WV, pp. 10–11; BC/SMI.

  93 FSC/D, 25th July 1941; SCW, p. 197.

  94 IWM/EA; BC/SMI.

  95 WCF, pp. 117–18.

  96 FSC/D, 2nd August 1941.

  97 FSC/D, 10th August 1941.

  98 FSC/D, 29th August 1941.

  99 FSC/D, 9th September 1941.

  100 FSC/D, 11th–12th September 1941.

  101 She was arrested soon after. See WCF, pp. 133–34.

  102 FSC/D, 13th September 1941.

  103 JS/WE.

  104 JS/WE. See also WCF, p. 151.

  105 FSC/D, 24th July 1941.

  106 See: IWM/EA; CTC, p. 57.

  107 WCF, p. 199.

  108 BC/SMI.

  109 JS/WE.

  110 See WCF, p. 204.

  111 SC/LIB; JS/WE.

  112 BC/SMI.

  113 JS/WE. Contrary to what Flora said, a handful of German soldiers were killed.

  114 See: WCF, pp. 218–19; ‘Belgrade Bombed by Accident Last April Is Report’, Vidette Messenger [Valparaiso, IN], 5th December 1944; ‘Flying Fortresses Bomb Belgrade by Mischance’, Monessen Daily Independent, 4th December 1944.

  115 See WCF, p. 219.

  116 JS/WE.

  117 QM, p. 210.

  118 WRY, p. 417.

  119 EA, pp. 389–90.

  120 JS/WE.

  121 EA, p. 397.

  122 SMFL, p. 223.

  123 SMFL, p. 223.

  124 See WCF, p. 245.

  125 SMFL, p. 223.

  126 SC/LIB.

  127 See: WV, p. 221; WCF, p. 241; EA, p. 394.

  128 JS/WE.

  129 WV, p. 184. See also FMC, pp. 47–48.

  130 EYS, p. 173; ‘King Peter of Yugoslavia – Visit to the West of Scotland’, Scotsman, 25th January 1943; WL/VH.

  131 See: IWM/EA; AFT, pp. 163–64.

  132 EYS, pp. 178–79.

  133 AFT, p. 212; EYS, p. 183; FNS, p. 40.

  134 IWM/EA.

  135 EYS, p. 184.

  136 ‘Yugoslav Surgeons Handicapped by Germans’ Destruction’, Scotsman, 24th September 1946.

  Chapter 20

  1 JS/WE.

  2 BC/SMI.

  3 LET/DSAB.

  4 LET/AB.

  5 LET/AB.

  6 IWM/EA.

  7 IWM/EA.

  8 LET/DSAB.

  9 LET/AB.

  10 AFT, p. 234; EYS, p. 190.

  11 RD, p. 194.

  12 EYS, p. 195; AFT, p. 234.

  13 IWM/EA; EYS, p. 195.

  14 EYS, pp. 197–96.

  15 Letter from Flora Sandes to Dick Sandes, 1945, in private hands.

  16 IWM/EA.

  17 EYS, pp. 198–99.

  18 EYS, pp. 202–204. See also ‘The London Letter’, Scotsman, 14th January 1950.

  19 BBC/OH.

  20 EAT/FH.

  21 See FNS, p. 94.

  22 EAT/FH.

  23 INT/AB. See also EAT/FH.

  24 BBC/OH.

  25 ‘Kind Old Lady Led Me into Battle’, Weekend Reveille, 23rd July 1954.

  26 WSM/IF.

  27 Letter from Flora, 4th January 1950, IWM/LPS.

  28 Letter from Flora, 18th January 1950, IWM/LPS.

  29 LU/LPS.

  30 Letter from Flora, 10th September, IWM/LPS.

  31 See Mosquito, No. 92, December 1950, p. 103 [illustration].

  32 ‘The Tie that Binds’, Mosquito, No. 92, December 1950, p. 112; ‘Joan of Arc’, Mosquito, No. 92, December 1950.

  33 Flora attended reunions of the “British Serbian Units Branch” of the British Legion on 1st July 1950 and 7th July 1951, according to a book of attendance in the author’s personal collection. See also MO/WPI, pp. 80, 82.

  34 WSM/IF.

  35 She was unable to attend the Parade in 1951 due to a family tragedy. Her nephew, Stephen Johnston, was murdered by communist guerrillas in Malaya and his wife and children were flown back to Britain almost immediately. See MO/WPII.

  36 ‘Women’s Pages’, Mosquito, No. 104, December 1953.

  37 ‘Captain Flora Hides Her “VC”’, Daily Express, 6th October 1952; ‘Captain Flora “V.C.” Parades with the Men’, Daily Mirror, 6th October 1952.

  38 MO/ED, p. 121.

  39 EYS, p. 215.

  40 IWM/EA.

  41 MO/ED, p. 121.

  42 MO/WPII.

  43 This is medical shorthand for a blockage of the bile duct. The blockage was, at her age, likely caused either by cancer of the pancreas or a stuck gallstone. Many thanks to Dr Jonathan Standley.

  Afterword

  1 RD, p. 193.

  2 ‘Our Booking-Office’, Punch, 1st November 1916, p. 324.

  3 ‘An English Woman Sergeant’,
Liverpool Weekly Post, 7th October 1916.

  4 See: Leah Leneman, ‘Medical Women in the First World War – Ranking Nowhere’, British Medical Journal, 18th–25th December 1993, p. 1592; Leah Leneman, ‘Medical Women at War, 1914–1918’, Medical History, No. 38, 1994, pp. 171–72; HSWH, p. 373.

  Epilogue

  1 Reports of Work in Corsica Nos. 75, 76, 77, IWM/WW [Serbia 6.2/24]; Report of Work in Corsica No. 186, IWM/WW [Serbia 6/4].

  2 ‘The Plight of Serbia’, Manchester Guardian, 5th November 1918; ‘The Needs of Serbia’, Manchester Guardian, 23rd December 1918. See also ‘The Serbian Relief Fund’ [advertisement], Manchester Guardian, 20th November 1918.

  3 ‘Funeral Services: Yugoslav Minister’, Times, 27th March 1937; DM/HF.

  4 ‘Gave Reception for Dr Barton Cookingham’, Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, 28th June 1915.

  5 ‘Dr Cookingham Appointed’, Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, 3rd March 1919.

  6 ‘Doctor’s Wife Wins Divorce’, Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, 12th July 1926; ‘Dr Cookingham Wed to Miss Janet Kehm’, Register and Herald [Pine Plains, NY], 24th April 1930; ‘Other Weddings’, New York Times, 25th March 1934; ‘Mack Moves for Mistrial in Stormy Cleveland Session’, Poughkeepsie Star-Enterprise, 15th December 1938.

  7 ‘Dr Cookingham Freed in Bail’, Poughkeepsie Journal, 14th January 1944; ‘Cookingham Saved a Life, Dow Says Defense Will Prove’, Poughkeepsie Journal, 30th March 1944; ‘Son Testifies for Cookingham’, Poughkeepsie Journal, 31st March 1944; ‘Dr Cookingham Acquitted by Jury’, Poughkeepsie Journal, 1st April 1944; ‘Dr Cookingham Provides Bail’, Poughkeepsie Journal, 7th June 1946; ‘Physician Arrested’, Greene County Examiner-Recorder [Catskill, NY], 27th June 1946.

  8 Florida Divorce Index, 1927–2001, Florida Department of Health, Jacksonville, Florida.

  9 ‘Ex-Doctor Being Held in Operation’, Troy Record, 4th August 1962; ‘Advanced Age Saves Physician from Jail Term’, Times Record [Troy, NY], 24th October 1962.

  10 See HARCN, p. 216.

  11 SC/TOS; ‘All Serbia Starving’, Washington Post, 27th November 1915.

  12 See LM/CY, p. 108.

  13 ‘American Wife of Slav Envoy flees Europe’, Mansfield News-Journal, 11th February 1943; Mme Slavko Grouitch, ‘Now Back in America, Has Seen Both World Wars Break on the Balkans’, Christian Science Monitor, 30th October 1942, p. 15.

  14 ‘Mme Grouitch Aided Refugees’, New York Times, 14th August 1956.

  15 EYS, pp. 202, 206, 209.

  16 BBC/YW.

  17 IWM/EA.

  18 EYS, pp. 212–14.

  19 NYT/SF.

  20 ‘American Found Soviet Crumbling’, New York Times, 14th May 1920.

  21 NYT/SF.

  22 ‘Denies Knee Dress Is Back in France’, New York Times, 4th February 1924.