“This is no place for women – at least for ladies.” So said Fanny Duberly in a letter from 1855. She was the only officer's wife to witness the entire Crimean War and she published her accounts of the conflict in a successful journal the same year. Although widely praised as the ‘new heroine for the Crimea,’ she was also censured and ridiculed. Along with Fanny Duberly, the more famous Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, there were many other women involved in the war who have, until now, been forgotten by history. Ritula talks to historians Helen Rappaport and Christine Kelly about Fanny and those other women, who, both on the front line and the home front, made a huge impact during the Crimean war. They’ll also be discussing what affect the women’s role had for the future emancipation of women.
“No Place for Ladies – the untold story of women in the Crimean War” by Helen Rappaport” pub Feb/ March 2007 by Aurum ISBN: 13 978 1 84513 220 0 . “Mrs Duberly’s War – Journals and letters from the Crimea” Ed by Christine Kelly published by OUP on 8th Feb ISBN: 978-0-19-920861-6
