Search results for ""Author Celia Lee""

Jean, Lady Hamilton's diaries remained forgotten and hidden in the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College, London, for fifty years. The story begins with the young couples' wedding, a dazzling bride, Jean Muir, marrying a star-struck Major Ian Hamilton. The daughter of the millionaire businessman Sir John Muir, Jean had all the money whilst Hamilton was penniless. Having spent their early married years in India the Hamilton's returned and set up house in the prestigious Hyde Park area of London, also eventually buying Lullenden Manor, East Grinstead, that they purchased as a country home from Winston Churchill when he could no longer afford it. Jean chronicled Ian's long army career that culminated in the Gallipoli campaign in 1915\. The failure there ended her husband's distinguished career and almost ended Churchill's as he had to leave his job as First Lord of the Admiralty. From new evidence it is possible to judge how close the campaign came to succeeding and the failure seems greatly due to the absence of fresh troops not being supplied by Lord Kitchener to the peninsula. Winston Churchill in particular was like family in the Hamiltons' home, he used to go there and practice his speeches, and painted alongside Jean to whom he sold his first painting. Because the Churchill's were in genteel poverty, Clementine could not afford the GBP25 fee to enter a nursing home to give birth to her 4th child Marigold. Mary, the Lady Soames, Clementine's daughter, supported Celia Lee in publishing the story. Marigold's secret grave was uncovered in Kensal Green Council cemetery in 2001\. The child's life ended in tragedy just before her 3rd birthday when she died in the post-First World War Spanish influenza epidemic. Unable to conceive, Jean adopted two children, Harry Knight, who had been abandoned on the doorstep of the creche of which she was President, and Phyllis Ursula James that she preferred to call Rosaleen and who was nicknamed Fodie in the family. Fodie's mother was unmarried and abandoned by her soldier lover during the First World War. Harry was killed in action in the Libyan desert during the Second World War. Fodie, having been sent to be educated at a private school was trapped in war-torn Europe and never returned home again.

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The changing role of women in warfare, a neglected aspect of military history, is the subject of this collection of perceptive, thought-provoking essays. By looking at the wide range of ways in which women have become involved in all the aspects of war, the authors open up this fascinating topic to wider understanding and debate. The discuss how, particularly in the two world wars, women have been increasingly mobilized in all the armed services, originally as support staff, then in defensive combat roles. They also consider the tragic story of women as victims of male violence, and how women have often put up a heroic resistance, and examine how women have been drawn into direct combat roles on an unprecedented level, a trend that is still controversial in the present day. The collection brings together the work of noted academics and historians with the wartime experiences of women who have remarkable personal stories to tell. The book will be a milestone in the study of the recent history of the parts women have played in the history of warfare. Authors Dr Juliette Pattinson, Professor Mark Connelly, Georgina Natzio, Christine Halsall, Jonathan Walker, Major Imogen Corrigan, Dr. Halik Kochanski, Dr T.A. Heathcote, Elspeth Johnstone, Mike Ryan, Grace Filby, Dr George Bailey, Tatiana Roshupkina, Leicester Chilton, Paul Edward Strong, Celia Lee, John Lee

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